Undocking successfully completed; Crew-11 mission team returns to earth, will touch down by noon

WASHINGTON: The Crew-11 mission team has returned from the International Space Station. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman had said that they were returning to earth due to the health issues of a crew member. The undocking process was successfully completed. The Dragon Endeavour spacecraft was separated from the International Space Station smoothly.

The undocking process was carried out while traveling over Australia. After a 10-and-a-half-hour journey, the spacecraft will splash down on the California coast at 2.11 pm today. A special boat will be used to retrieve the spacecraft and safely evacuate the crew. The mission was cut short by NASA for the first time due to health emergency.

However, it has not been revealed who is suffering from health issues. Earlier, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke handed over the command of Expedition 74 aboard the ISS to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The crew includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Finke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

The return comes after 245 days in space. This is the first time in the history of the International Space Station that an astronaut's mission has been temporarily suspended due to health issues. The Dragon's return journey is being controlled by Indian-origin Ronak Dave, who is the flight director at NASA's Houston Space Center.
NASA's crew missions typically last more than six months. The predecessors return only after the next crew arrives and takes over. The launch of the Crew-12 mission is currently scheduled for February. When Crew-11 returns before they do, the three-member crew that arrived at the station in November aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-28 mission will take full responsibility for the International Space Station. The crew includes two Russian astronauts and a representative of NASA.