Hey, space enthusiasts! NASA just announced that the International Space Station's Crew-11 might be back on Earth as soon as this Thursday, Jan 14, after an unexpected medical hiccup onboard. This would be the first-ever medical evacuation in the station's history! 🚀
According to NASA and SpaceX, the Crew-11 Dragon capsule is set to undock at 5 p.m. ET on Jan 14, aiming for a splashdown off California's coast early on Jan 15, weather permitting. The good news? The crew member in question is stable, and there's no injury involved. It's more like a pre-planned early landing rather than an emergency rush. 🩺
The four astronauts—Americans Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan's Kimiya Yui, and Russia's Oleg Platonov—have been floating in microgravity since Aug 1. Their six-month adventure in low Earth orbit was already wrapping up soon, so they're not too far off schedule.
Meanwhile, American astronaut Chris Williams will stay aboard the ISS to keep the U.S. presence alive. NASA hinted that the next U.S. crew might launch earlier than planned, but details are still under wraps.
Fun space fact: the ISS has been continuously occupied since 2000, serving as a floating lab for experiments that pave the way for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. After 2030, it's set for retirement—its orbit will be slowly lowered until it burns up over Point Nemo, a remote “spacecraft graveyard” in the Pacific. 🗺️🌌
Stay tuned for more updates as we follow Crew-11's splashdown story! Keep looking up. 🌠
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
