International Crew-11 returns to Earth after early departure from ISS

ISTANBUL (AA) - A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying an international crew from Roscosmos, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully landed on Earth on Thursday, the Russian space corporation reported.

Crew-11, which included NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, splashed down off the coast of California after an early return from the International Space Station (ISS).

In a statement, Roscosmos described the mission as a productive and cooperative effort, noting that the crew completed scientific experiments, station maintenance and operational handovers during their six-week stay in orbit.

“It’s been a wonderful six weeks of flight together, filled with work, handovers, experiments, station system maintenance, and lots of socializing, friendly jokes, interesting stories, and shared holidays,” the statement said.

NASA said the decision to bring the crew back earlier than planned was taken after flight teams began monitoring a “medical concern” involving one of the crew members. The space agency did not provide further details but said the situation was handled out of an abundance of caution.

All crew members were reported to be safely recovered following the landing.