Crew 11 Lands Safely Off Of The California Coast

Infrared cameras tracked Crew Dragon under parachutes in the night sky over the Pacific Ocean
Source: NASA Livestream

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-person Crew-11 team touched down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego early Thursday, wrapping up a mission that lasted just over five months aboard the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov splashed down at 12:41 AM PT. SpaceX recovery crews pulled the spacecraft and astronauts from the water shortly after.

NASA Astronaut Mike Finke was the first to exit Crew Dragon this morning after it was brought aboard SpaceX’s recovery vehicle.

The crew came home roughly three weeks ahead of schedule due to an undisclosed medical issue affecting one of the four. Citing privacy, NASA has declined to identify which crew member is involved but confirmed the individual remains in stable condition. All four astronauts were transported to a local hospital for evaluation following splashdown—a precautionary measure to take advantage of medical resources on the ground. Presumably, the crew member with the medical issue can now begin treatment.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our astronauts and the teams on the ground at NASA, SpaceX, and across our international partnerships,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. “Their professionalism and focus kept the mission on track, even with an adjusted timeline.”

The crew launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on August 1, 2025, and docked to the station about 15 hours later. Over the course of 167 days in orbit, they circled Earth more than 2,670 times and racked up nearly 71 million miles.

crew 11
Crew 11 Launching

Crew-11 conducted more than 140 experiments during their stay and marked the 25th anniversary of continuous human presence aboard the ISS on November 2. The mission was Fincke’s fourth trip to space, bringing his career total to 549 days—fourth-highest among all NASA astronauts. For Cardman and Platonov, it was their first spaceflight.

After a planned overnight hospital stay, all four crew members will head to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for standard postflight medical checks and reconditioning.


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