Medical reasons: ISS crew on premature return to Earth

HANDOUT - This photo provided by Nasa shows (below, r-l) Nasa astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, Nasa astronaut Zena Cardman and Jaxa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui. Photo: Uncredited/NASA/AP/dpa - ATTENTION: For editorial use only in connection with current reporting and only with full attribution of the above credit

Keystone

For the first time in the history of the International Space Station (ISS), the US space agency NASA is bringing a crew of four astronauts back to Earth early due to medical problems.

Keystone-SDA

14.01.2026, 23:48

The four astronauts undocked from the ISS in a "Crew Dragon" from tech billionaire Elon Musk's space company SpaceX, as live images from NASA showed.

Over the course of Thursday, US astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov are expected to land in the ocean off the coast of the US state of California after a flight of around eleven hours.

Last week, NASA first canceled an external mission to the ISS at short notice due to the health problems of a crew member - and then announced that it would bring the entire four-person crew back to Earth prematurely because of the problem. NASA would not comment on the identity of the crew member or details of the health problems. The crew member is said to be in a stable condition. Crew 11 has been on board the ISS since the beginning of August and was supposed to remain there for a few more weeks.