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In a first-ever medical evacuation, SpaceX capsule named Endeavour, carrying a four-member International Space Station (ISS) crew home from orbit, splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean off California early today.<\/p>\n
Notably, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) cut short the mission due to a medical emergency, bringing the astronauts back a few weeks ahead of the set schedule.<\/p>\n
A joint NASA-SpaceX webcast showed the capsule carrying US astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui landing off the coast of San Diego.<\/p>\n
VIDEO: \ud83e\uddd1\ud83d\ude80 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Astronauts return to Earth in first-ever medical evacuationFour International Space Station crew members splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, after the first ever medical evacuation in the orbital lab\u2019s history. A NASA video feed showed the capsule\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/IIL8wrganB<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The video featured the deployment of two sets of parachutes from the nose of the free-falling capsule, with the parachutes slowing the capsule\u2019s descent rate to about 15 miles per hour (25 kilometres per hour) before gently landing onto the water.<\/p>\n During a radio transmission to the SpaceX flight control centre, Endeavour\u2019s commander, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, said, \u201cIt\u2019s good to be home."<\/p>\n Upon landing, all four astronauts were helped out of the capsule one by one, as they were welcomed with cheers and applause from SpaceX employees aboard a ship.<\/p>\n Why was the mission cut short?<\/strong><\/p>\n The ISS crew made an early emergency return to Earth as one of the astronauts faced an undisclosed medical condition. Last week, NASA announced that it had cancelled a spacewalk at the last minute because of health concerns involving one of the crew members.<\/p>\n On January 8, the agency declared that all four Crew-11 members would be brought home early.<\/p>\n NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed that one of the astronauts was facing a \u201cserious medical condition", calling for immediate medical attention on the ground.<\/p>\n However, the authorities have not yet disclosed what was the condition that prompted an emergency landing, citing privacy concerns.<\/p>\n tags :ISS<\/a>nasa<\/a>SpaceX<\/a><\/a>. Stay updated with the Latest World News and Global developments<\/a>, along with key India News and National updates<\/a>. Explore Politics<\/a>, City News<\/a>, Explainers<\/a>, and Expert Opinions<\/a> on News18. Join the fun, play games on News18<\/a>.\u00a0Download the News18 App<\/a> to stay updated!United States of America (USA)January 15, 2026, 23:11 IST world<\/a> SpaceX Capsule With Four ISS Astronauts Returns To Earth In First-Ever Medical Evacuation | Watch and .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SpaceX Capsule With Four ISS Astronauts Returns To Earth In First-Ever Medical Evacuation | Watch Curated By :Meemansa ShekhawatNews18.comLast Updated:January 15, 2026, 23:11 ISTSpaceX Endeavour retur…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haryana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}