A SPACEX capsule carrying a four-member crew home from orbit in an emergency return to earth necessitated by an undisclosed serious medical condition afflicting one of the astronauts splashed down safely early yesterday in the Pacific Ocean off California.
The Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Endeavour parachuted into calm seas off San Diego at about 12.45am EST (11.45am Bahrain time), capping a 10-hour-plus descent from the International Space Station and fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere.
Their return a few weeks ahead of schedule marked the first time that Nasa has cut short the mission of an ISS crew due to a health emergency.
Live infrared video presented in a joint Nasa-SpaceX webcast showed deployment of the two sets of parachutes from the nose of the free-falling capsule, slowing its rate of descent to about 25kmph before it gently hit the water.
In a radio transmission to the SpaceX flight-control centre near Los Angeles, Endeavour’s commander, Nasa astronaut Zena Cardman, 38, was heard saying, “It’s good to be home.”
Joining her on the flight home were fellow US astronaut Mike Fincke, 58, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 55, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, 39.
They arrived together at the space station following a launch to orbit from Florida in August, and departed Wednesday afternoon on a 10 1/2-hour flight home, ending a 167-day mission.
The decision to bring all four members of Crew-11 home early was announced on January 8, with Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman saying one of the astronauts faced a “serious medical condition” that required immediate medical attention on the ground.
Fincke, a retired Air Force colonel who was the station’s designated commander, and Cardman, a rookie astronaut and geobiologist, had been scheduled to conduct a six-hour-plus spacewalk last week to install hardware outside the station. The spacewalk was cancelled on January 7 over what Nasa then characterised as a “medical concern” with an astronaut.
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