NASA SpaceX Crew-11 Undocking and Return to Earth

Crew-11 Undocking from ISS

• 🚀 The SpaceX Dragon Endeavor spacecraft, carrying the four-person Crew-11, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on January 14, 2026.
• ⏱️ The undocking occurred a few weeks ahead of schedule due to a medical concern with a crew member, ensuring proper monitoring upon return to Earth.
• 👨‍🚀 The crew includes Commander Zena Cardman, pilot Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui, and Russia's Oleg Platonov.

Journey Back to Earth

• 🌌 The return trip to Earth is an approximately 10.5-hour journey culminating in a splashdown off the coast of San Diego, California.
• ⚙️ The undocking and de-orbit process are fully autonomous, with Dragon using its Draco thrusters for separation and trajectory adjustments.
• 🛰️ Key stages of the return include trunk separation, de-orbit burn, parachute deployment, and splashdown.

Mission Accomplishments and Crew Statistics

• 🗓️ Crew-11 spent 167 days in space, completing 2,672 orbits of Earth, covering a distance of 70.8 million miles.
• 🧑‍🚀 Pilot Mike Fincke is wrapping up his fourth spaceflight, accumulating a total of 549 days, ranking him fourth all-time for NASA astronauts.
• 🇯🇵 Kimiya Yui is returning after his second spaceflight, with a total of 309 days in space.

Post-Undocking Procedures

• 🌍 Following undocking, Dragon exited the ISS's keep-out sphere and approach ellipsoid, marking the end of joint operations between Houston and Hawthorne mission control.
• 🧑‍🚀 The crew is now settled in for the journey home and has permission to remove their space suits.
• 🛰️ The ISS will continue with a three-person crew until the arrival of Crew-12.

Planned Splashdown and Recovery

• 🌊 Splashdown is targeted for early Thursday morning, January 15th, at approximately 12:41 a.m. Pacific time.
• 🚢 A SpaceX recovery vessel will be on standby to assist the crew upon egress from the Dragon spacecraft.
• 📺 Live visual coverage of the splashdown and recovery will resume approximately one hour prior to the event.