NASA: Crew-11 returned to Earth after the first medical evacuation from the ISS

Four members of SpaceX's Crew-11 crew have returned to Earth after NASA ordered the International Space Station's first-ever medical evacuation, The Guardian reports.

The Crew Dragon capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 00:41 local time (08:41 GMT) on Thursday, NASA's broadcast follows.

On board were American astronauts Mike Fink and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. After the landing, the mission control centre greeted the crew with the phrase "welcome home" and Cardman replied that she was glad to be back and grateful to the crews who provided the flight.

The mission ended earlier than planned due to health problems for one of the crew members. NASA did not disclose details, emphasising that it was not an emergency. Agency administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters that the injured person "feels fine" and the condition was "serious" but one that could have occurred on Earth as well - outside of microgravity.

Fink had previously written on social media that everyone on board was "fine" and the decision to return early was a "deliberate" decision to conduct full examinations on Earth, where the full range of diagnostic capabilities are available.

Crew-11 arrived at the ISS in early August and was scheduled to remain at the station until mid-February, but according to NASA's chief medical officer James Polk, "continued risk" and uncertainty about the diagnosis were the reasons for the early end of the expedition. During 167 days in orbit, the crew conducted about 900 hours of experiments, NASA spokesman Joel Montalbano said.

American Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev remain on the station.

The ISS has been continuously inhabited since 2000 and is used as a laboratory for research to support longer-distance missions - including future missions to the moon and Mars. The station is scheduled to be decommissioned after 2030, gradually reducing its orbit until it collapses in the atmosphere over a remote region of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo.