{"id":9645,"date":"2026-01-13T18:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/iss-gains-new-commander-as-crew-11-prepares-midweek-departure\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:59:24","slug":"iss-gains-new-commander-as-crew-11-prepares-midweek-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/iss-gains-new-commander-as-crew-11-prepares-midweek-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"ISS gains new commander as Crew-11 prepares midweek departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_72141\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-72141\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-72141\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260112_ISS_Crew-11.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260112_ISS_Crew-11.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260112_ISS_Crew-11-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-72141\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Four SpaceX Crew-11 members gather together for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station\u2019s Kibo laboratory module on Jan. 9, 2026. Clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA astronaut Mike Fincke wrapped up his time as commander of the International Space Station on Monday, Jan. 12, after just over a month in the position.<\/p>\n<p>His time in the role is wrapping up a month earlier than anticipated after NASA decided to medically evacuate the four members of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission due to a \u201cserious medical condition\u201d with one of the four that became evident on Jan. 7. NASA leadership determined the proper diagnostic and treatment couldn\u2019t take place onboard the ISS and decided to bring the crew home early.<\/p>\n<p>During a change of command ceremony broadcast from the ISS, Fincke, 58, handed over the symbolic key to the space station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, 42. He called the early departure \u201cbittersweet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just want to say thank you for the first part of Expedition 74, but also the last part of Expedition 73. It\u2019s been really amazing,\u201d Fincke said. \u201cMy friend Scott Kelly says that spaceflight is the biggest team sport and it\u2019s true. We got a great time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody really rose to the occasion for our expeditions and it\u2019s been really a pleasure to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aNsJLZSEudk?si=RyA7Bhs8SvSCT-_Y\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Fincke thanked his crew mates individually, wrapping up his comments by calling fellow NASA astronaut and fellow member of Crew-11, Zena Cardman, 38, \u201ca rock star, superstar, awesome star.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a pleasure serving with you, watching you see Earth for the first time, riding on the rocks and now it\u2019s coming to an end, where we get to go home. It\u2019s bittersweet,\u201d Fincke said.<\/p>\n<p>Crew-11 is scheduled to undock from the space-facing port of the Harmony module at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 UTC) on Wednesday, Jan. 14, and splash down off the coast of California around 3:40 a.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 15.<\/p>\n<p>The early departure of Crew-11 will leave the space station with just three people onboard for the first time since three-person expeditions ceased being the standard for the ISS in May 2009.<\/p>\n<p>NASA astronaut Chris Williams, 42, a Harvard-educated physician, will be the lone American onboard the space station until Crew-12 arrives sometime in February. In a new update on Monday, NASA confirmed that Crew-12 will be on station for a nine-month, long-duration mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChris, you\u2019re going to be the [U.S. Orbital Segment] lead in just a few minutes. You are the perfect guy for this. You\u2019re going to rock it and roll it. It\u2019s going to be amazing,\u201d Fincke said to Williams. \u201cIt was great to have all the handover time with you and to really become a true friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kud-Sverchkov, the station\u2019s new commander, flew to space alongside Williams and fellow cosmonaut Sergey Mikayev, 39, onboard Soyuz MS-28 on Nov. 27, 2025. This is his second spaceflight after launching to the ISS in May 2020 onboard Soyuz MS-17.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N1W-VXVgSjk?si=h2GyQwcmzfEwyM07\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four SpaceX Crew-11 members gather together for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station\u2019s Kibo laboratory module on Jan. 9, 2026. Clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[851,717,852,853,190,854,316,858],"class_list":["post-9645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crew-11","tag-international-space-station","tag-kimiya-yui","tag-mike-fincke","tag-nasa","tag-oleg-platonov","tag-spacex","tag-zena-cardman"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}