On Thursday, Crew 11 returned safely to Earth. Their early departure from the international space station (ISS) was because of a medical evacuation. The astronauts, who left the ISS a month earlier than planned, disembarked the Dragon Endeavour at approximately 01:30 local time and 09:30 GMT.
The trip home took 11 hours. It wrapped up just as successfully with a splashdown off the coast of California. Alongside Dennis it will carry fellow Americans Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, as well as Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
Crew 11 docked with the ISS on 1 August 2021. They anticipated their mission duration would be six and a half months long. Unforeseen circumstances stood in the way when one crew member became seriously ill. They made the call to go home a bit earlier than planned.
The Dragon Endeavour that brought them home was a key participant in many landmark space missions, like this homecoming just weeks ago. NASA and international space agencies are constantly working to monitor astronaut health and safety in the wake of this incident. They remain critically focused on taking the right corrective actions to ensure the success of future missions.