An astronaut who had a “serious medical condition” onboard the International Space Station is safely back on Earth, after the first-ever emergency return space flight.
The astronaut and three others returned from a mission in space a month early, making a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego early on Thursday.
With assistance from SpaceX, the capsule landed less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station (ISS).
Their first stop was a hospital for an overnight stay, going through standard procedure and medical checks.
As it happened: Agency gives update on astronaut
At a press conference ahead of their journey to hospital, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said that the four crew members are “safe” and in “good spirits”.
And according to Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator for NASA, it was only “about a week ago” when NASA decided to bring home Crew-11 early.
He added that the team “meticulously went through all the processes”. “You saw the result of that today,” he said, noting that the crew completed 140 experiments during their time in space.
