Crew-11 commander relinquishes ISS control as NASA prepares first-ever medical evacuation

Washington: NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, pilot of the Crew-11 mission, officially relinquished command of the International Space Station’s Expedition 74 during a ceremony on Tuesday, handing control to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchov and symbolically passing a golden key to the station’s new chief.

The handover came as NASA and SpaceX prepare for the first-ever medical evacuation from the ISS, with the Crew-11 astronauts set to return to Earth earlier than planned following a medical issue reported on January 7.

NASA said the Crew-11 team has begun packing their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ahead of the undocking scheduled for January 14.

"At the end of Monday’s shift, the foursome retrieved computer tablets from inside Dragon and reviewed the steps they will use while departing the station and reentering Earth’s atmosphere," NASA wrote in an afternoon update.

"NASA and SpaceX target undocking Crew-11 from the International Space Station no earlier than 5pm ET on Jan. 14, with splashdown off California targeted for early Jan. 15 depending on weather and recovery conditions," the agency said in a post on X.

Officials confirmed the medical evacuation was not triggered by an onboard injury. The affected crew member is stable and does not require emergency evacuation. Further details were not disclosed.

Crew-11 astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Platonov of Russia have been aboard the ISS since August 1. While their mission was originally nearing its planned completion, NASA said the early return is necessary to address the medical situation.

Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS serves as a key research platform supporting future deep-space exploration, including planned missions to Mars. The station is scheduled for decommissioning after 2030.