How NASA will bring astronauts home after first ever evacuation of International Space Station
Last week, NASA announced it would be scrapping its first spacewalk of the year to evacuate four astronauts a month early, as one of them has developed a 'serious medical condition.'
The American space agency cancelled the mission and triggered the first-ever medical evacuation of the International Space Station (ISS) in a bid to get Crew-11 home, as NASA's chief health and medical officer, Dr James Polk, said it wasn't an 'emergency evacuation', but rather a case of 'erring on the side of caution for the crew member'.
With the astronaut said to be in a 'stable' condition, NASA and SpaceX are now planning the return of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which will bring the crew back to Earth.
The four astronauts onboard the ISS are NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
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NASA's latest update revealed the crew should land back into our atmosphere in the early hours of Thursday morning (15 January), with an estimated landing time of around 3.40am local time.
The plan is for the capsule to splash down just off the coast of Southern California, after SpaceX decided to move all splashdowns to the Pacific to avoid any debris from the Dragon capsule's expendable trunk falling over populated areas.
However, there are multiple drop zones in the area.
How will the astronauts return home?
Crew-11's journey will begin on Wednesday (14 January), when they'll undock from the ISS in the Dragon capsule and get to a safe distance from the space station.
From there, the spacecraft will fire its engines to slow down just enough to drop out of orbit and head back towards Earth.
Once the capsule enters Earth's atmosphere on Thursday, it will be travelling at around 17,500 mph and will begin to slow dramatically due to friction as several parachutes are deployed in stages to prepare for landing.
Eventually, the Dragon will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, and a SpaceX recovery ship will pick up the capsule and assist the crew.
Explaining in an updated mission overview, SpaceX officials wrote: "After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of California approximately 11 hours later on Thursday, January 15."
NASA confirmed that the astronaut who experienced the medical issue does not require any special measures that would alter the plan to return the crew home.
Emma Rosemurgey