Four astronauts have splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after leaving the International Space Station in Nasa’s first medical evacuation.
The American, Russian and Japanese crew safely landed off the coast of California in a SpaceX shuttle after cutting their mission short by a month.
Nasa said the journey was made after one of the astronauts suffered a serious medical issue, but did not provide details of the nature of the illness or say which crew member was affected.
However, the astronaut in question was said to be in a stable condition and the issue was not described as an emergency.
The members of Crew 11, Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov boarded the ISS on August 1 for a six and a half month mission until February.
A spacewalk was cancelled and the mission cut short when the medical issue arose.
Control of the ISS was handed over from Crew 11 to Russian Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and two others.
The Dragon Endeavour capsule landed near the US coast on Thursday following a 10-hour flight from the station.
Live infrared video presented in a joint NASA-SpaceX webcast showed deployment of the two sets of parachutes from the nose of the free-falling capsule, slowing its rate of descent to about 15 miles per hour (25 kph) before it gently hit the water.
In a radio transmission to the SpaceX flight-control center near Los Angeles, Endeavour's commander, NASA astronaut Cardman, 38, was heard saying, "It's good to be home."
Nasa said on X: "Welcome home, Crew-11! At 3:41am ET (0841 UTC), the @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of San Diego, California!"
