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The 4 astronauts of SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission made it to Houston right this moment (Jan. 16), only a day after their unprecedented medical evacuation from the Worldwide Area Station.
The Crew-11 spaceflyers — NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of Japan and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov — splashed down off the coast of Lengthy Seashore, California early Thursday morning (Jan. 15). They then spent a day and night time at an area medical facility earlier than heading east to Texas.
“The 4 crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission have arrived on the company’s Johnson Area Middle in Houston, the place they may proceed normal postflight reconditioning and evaluations,” NASA officers wrote in an emailed replace on Friday afternoon (Jan. 16).
“All crew members stay steady,” the replace provides. “To guard the crew’s medical privateness, no particular particulars concerning the situation or particular person shall be shared.”
Crew-11 launched in early August for a deliberate six-month keep aboard the Worldwide Area Station. However one of many 4 crewmates skilled a medical problem in orbit final week, prompting NASA to chop the mission quick by 5 weeks or so.
The orbiting lab is at present staffed by a skeleton crew of three — NASA’s Chris Williams and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, each of the Russian house company Roscosmos.
The orbiting lab will not return to its baseline of seven crewmembers till SpaceX’s Crew-12 mission arrives. Crew-12 is at present scheduled to launch on Feb. 15, although NASA and SpaceX are learning the potential of transferring that timeline up a bit if potential.
Crew-12 is not the one astronaut launch that NASA is making ready for in the meanwhile. The company can be gearing up for the liftoff of Artemis 2, which is able to ship 4 individuals on a 10-day mission across the moon.
Artemis 2’s Area Launch System rocket and Orion capsule will roll out to the launch pad at Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on Saturday (Jan. 17). If all goes properly with the rollout and subsequent testing, Artemis 2 might launch as quickly as Feb. 6.
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