'It is bittersweet': Crew-11 astronaut hands over control of ISS ahead of 1st-ever medical evacuation

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Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) completed a change-of-command ceremony today (Jan. 12) ahead of the early departure of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission, which is leaving soon due to an undisclosed medical condition concerning one of its crewmembers.

The decision to cut the Crew-11 mission short came Friday (Jan. 9), after a planned spacewalk the previous day had to be canceled due to "medical concerns." NASA did not reveal details about the situation, including which astronaut was experiencing the issue, due to privacy concerns, but quickly put plans into motion after making the decision to end the crew's rotation early in the first-ever medical evacuation in ISS history.

Crew-11 is scheduled to depart the ISS on Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 14), riding SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour back to Earth for a Pacific Coast splashdown early Thursday morning (Jan. 15). Before they leave, however, command (and the symbolic key) of the orbital lab needs to be transferred from NASA astronaut Mike Fincke to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov — and that's what happened today.

The seven astronauts of the ISS' current Expedition 74 gathered in the Japanese laboratory module for the occasion, floating behind Fincke and Kud-Sverchkov as each made remarks. "It's bittersweet," Fincke said during the livestreamed ceremony, before passing the microphone around so other crewmembers could share fond memories of the departing astronauts.

"We're leaving you all with a lot of work, but also with a lot of knowledge knowing that you guys are really going to do super well," Fincke said after getting the microphone back, presenting the large metal "key" to the ISS to Kud-Sverchkov. "Sergey, it's an honor and a pleasure to be a commander, and I cannot imagine being happier than to hand over command to you."

Crew-11 is scheduled to undock from the ISS Wednesday afternoon. Hatch closing and departure coverage is set to begin on Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), with departure set for 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT). After an 11-hour deorbit journey, the Endeavour Dragon spacecraft and its crew are expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday around 3:40 a.m. EST (0840 GMT).

Crew-11 launched to the space station on Aug. 1, 2025, carrying Fincke and NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Russia's Oleg Platonov and Kimiya Yui from Japan. They were scheduled to return sometime after the arrival of their replacements aboard the Crew-12 mission, which is expected to launch in mid-February.

The mysterious medical condition threw a wrench into those plans, though. The astronauts' early departure will leave a skeleton crew of three aboard the station, with NASA astronaut Chris Williams as the sole American onboard. Ideally, NASA prefers that crews overlap to avoid potential gaps in maintenance and research, but the agency has deemed this medical situation serious enough to bring Crew-11 home ASAP.

NASA is still determining if an earlier launch date for Crew-12 will be feasible. The agency is simultaneously working the logistics to roll its Artemis 2 Space Launch System rocket from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center to its pad at Launch Complex-39B. Rollout for SLS is scheduled for Jan. 17, with the first launch opportunity for the Artemis 2 astronaut mission around the moon opening on Feb. 6.