Astronaut Mike Fincke, Commander of the International Space Station and NASA crew member is bring home early next week due to a medical issue, said Sunday that he and his teammates were “stable, safe and well cared for.”
In a Linkedin post, Fincke, 58, said that he and Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov were “all doing well” and that NASA’s decision to bring them home earlier than expected was “the right decision, even if it’s a little bittersweet.”
He closed the post by saying the crew “looks forward to returning home soon, reuniting with our loved ones, and resolving any medical questions with the best care available.”
NASA 
If all goes well, Fincke and his teammates will bid farewell to their three colleagues at the station and detach from the outpost around 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday.
At 2:50 a.m. Thursday, the Crew Dragon’s braking rockets will fire to slow the ship and let it exit orbit for a 3:40 a.m. splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.
After medical checks aboard a SpaceX recovery ship, the crew will be transported to land by helicopter, where a NASA plane will be waiting to take them back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The astronauts initially expected to return to Earth around February 20, but NASA announced last Friday that Crew 11 had been asked to cut their mission short after a crew member reported a medical issue the day before.
The astronaut in question has not been identified and the nature of the medical problem has not been disclosed in accordance with long-standing medical confidentiality guidelines.
But Fincke’s LinkedIn post and a photo of Crew 11 checking their pressure suits indicated that whatever the problem was, it was by no means debilitating.
“This is a deliberate decision to allow appropriate medical evaluations to take place in the field, where the full range of diagnostic capabilities exists,” Fincke wrote.
The photo, Fincke added, “was taken as we prepared our spacesuits for return – a normal, methodical step in preparing to return home, and a reminder that this decision was made calmly and carefully, with people at the center.”
The early return of Crew 11 marks the first time in NASA history that a crew has been asked to abort its mission due to a medical issue.
James Polk, NASA’s chief medical officer, said Friday that, based on statistical analyses, “we should have had a medical evacuation about every three years…and we haven’t had one until now.”
“Even then, we err on the side of caution,” he said. “Again, this is not an emergency evacuation, but we are erring on the side of caution for the crew member and in their best interest.”
Fincke plans to hand over command of the station to cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov in a brief ceremony Monday afternoon.
“What strikes me most is how much NASA cares about its employees,” Fincke wrote. “The flight surgeons, engineers, managers and support teams came together quickly and professionally to chart the best path forward.
“The teams on the ground – in mission control centers and partner organizations around the world – have been extraordinary. We are proud of the joint work we accomplished and the camaraderie we shared, including great songs and many more dad jokes.
With Crew 11 departing, Kud-Sverchkov and his Soyuz MS-28 crewmates – Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams – will have the station to themselves until Crew 11’s replacements arrive.
As it stands, the launch of Crew 12 Commander Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev remains officially scheduled for February 15. But NASA is working to bring that goal forward by a few days if possible.
“We are leaving the ISS in good hands,” Fincke said. “The three teammates who arrived in November will continue the mission and will be joined by Crew 12 in just a few weeks.”
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