A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft completed its Crew-11, or SpaceX Crew-11, mission for NASA with a successful splashdown. Aboard were astronauts Zena Cardman, Michael Fincke, and Kimiya Yui, and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, who had arrived at the International Space Station on August 2, 2025, as part of Expedition 73/74. The Crew-11 members ended SpaceX’s 11th regular crewed mission in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The Crew Dragon had left the Station approximately 11 hours earlier.
The Crew-11 mission ended a few weeks early in what was described as a medical evacuation due to a medical condition affecting one of the crew members. For privacy reasons, no details were released, starting from the identity of the person who’s suffering the health issue.
As with the previous crewed mission, the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, whereas previous missions had ended with splashdowns in the Atlantic Ocean. This change is intended to avoid the risk of debris from the unpressurized section, which is expelled during reentry, falling onto land.
Shortly after splashdown, SpaceX’s “MV Shannon” ship moved to pick up the Endeavour and its crew and transported them to shore. Support personnel also used some speedboats for the recovery operations. The astronauts also received their first medical checks aboard the ship.
This initial phase of Expedition 74 lasted less than expected, just over a month. There was no spacecraft traffic, as two cargo spacecraft are scheduled to leave the International Space Station in the coming weeks. A spacewalk was planned, but it was canceled after the diagnosis of the medical issue that led to the Crew-11 mission’s early end.
On Monday, January 12, astronaut Michael Fincke officially handed over command of the International Space Station to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.
For the first time, a mission on the International Space Station was terminated due to a medical issue affecting a crew member. The issue was made public in early January, but details were not provided. It was reported that specialist medical consultations were conducted, but the conclusion was that the Station lacks the resources for a complete diagnosis and adequate treatment. The medical situation was described as stable but serious enough to lead to the decision to abort the Crew-11 mission, as the astronauts’ health is the priority.
The need for the Crew Dragon Endeavour to depart forced all members of the Crew-11 mission to return to Earth. The launch of the Crew-12 mission was scheduled for mid-February, and now it remains to be seen whether they can significantly move it forward. This is an evolving situation.
