On Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 14), SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission will carry out the first-ever medical evacuation from the Worldwide Area Station (ISS).
The quartet — NASA’s Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui of Japan and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov — are slicing their deliberate six-month mission quick by a couple of month as a consequence of a medical concern affecting one among them. NASA has not revealed that astronaut’s identification or the character of the medical concern, citing privateness issues.
What time will Crew-11 go away the ISS?
Present plans name for Crew-11’s Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, to depart the area station on Wednesday (Jan. 14) at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 GMT).
The hatches between Endeavour and the ISS will shut about 90 minutes earlier than that, at 3:30 p.m. EST (1930 GMT), if all goes in accordance with plan.
What time is Crew-11’s return to Earth?
Crew-11’s journey dwelling to Earth might be comparatively temporary. Endeavour is scheduled to splash down within the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Thursday (Jan. 15) at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 GMT), 51 minutes after conducting a deorbit engine burn.
The above schedule will not be set in stone, nonetheless. “Mission managers proceed monitoring circumstances within the restoration space, as undocking of the SpaceX Dragon depends upon spacecraft readiness, restoration workforce readiness, climate, sea states and different components,” NASA officers wrote in a assertion on Jan. 9.
If the schedule adjustments, we’ll let you already know.
Can I watch Crew-11’s return to Earth?
Sure, you possibly can watch Crew-11’s undocking and splashdown, in addition to just a few different actions associated to the astronauts’ return to Earth.
In response to NASA’s Jan. 9 replace, the company will cowl hatch-closing on Wednesday (Jan. 14) starting at 3:00 p.m. EST (2000 GMT). NASA’s livestream will return at 4:45 p.m. EST (2145 GMT) that very same day for undocking.
Splashdown protection will begin Thursday (Jan. 15) at 2:15 a.m. EST (0715 GMT), which is able to enable us to observe the de-orbit burn at 2:50 a.m. EST (0750 GMT) and splashdown 51 minutes later. A return-to-Earth press convention is scheduled for 5:45 a.m. EST (1045 GMT) on that very same day, and NASA will apparently webcast that as nicely.
These occasions will air on NASA+, and the company will doubtless stream them through its YouTube channel as nicely. As well as, SpaceX will present its personal webcast, which is able to start quarter-hour earlier than undocking on Wednesday and resume roughly an hour earlier than splashdown on Thursday. SpaceX’s feed might be accessible on its web site and its X account.
