SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The four-person crew from NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station safely splashed down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego County early Thursday around 12:43 a.m.
Crew members began exiting the capsule at 1:28 a.m., led by Mike Fincke, its captain, who assists the commander in maneuvering the capsule. He was followed by fellow NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the commander, who is responsible for the overall success of the mission, the safety of crew and spacecraft and manages ascent and entry.
Kimiya Yui, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut, was the third to exit. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov was the last to exit. They were both mission specialists, astronauts with mission-specific duties.
Each crew member was placed on a gurney upon exiting and immediately carried to a nearby medical tent for evaluation. They were set to be taken to a hospital following their initial evaluations.
After splash down, the SpaceX Dragon was taken out of the water and brought aboard a recovery ship.
It took eight minutes to get all four crew members off the spacecraft.
The spaceflight was the fourth for Fincke, second for Yui and first for both Cardman and Platonov.
The Dragon undocked from the International Space Station's Harmony module at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday Pacific Standard Time to begin the trip back to Earth, according to NASA.
NASA announced last Thursday the crew would be leaving the International Space Station earlier than originally planned due to a medical concern for a crew member who was not identified and only described as stable.
Due to medical privacy, "it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member," the agency announced.
The mission launched on Aug. 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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