NASA live coverage underway as Crew-11 prepares to close Dragon hatch

NASA’s live coverage is underway on NASA+, Amazon Prime and the agency’s YouTube channel for the return of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission as astronauts prepare to close the hatch between the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the International Space Station.

NASA decided on Jan. 8 to return Crew-11 earlier than originally planned while teams monitored a medical concern with a crew member currently aboard the station; the crew member is stable, the agency said. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov are scheduled to close the hatch at approximately 3:30 p.m. EST.

The agency will provide live undocking coverage at 4:45 p.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime and the agency’s YouTube channel. The spacecraft is set to autonomously undock at approximately 5:05 p.m. to begin the roughly 11-hour journey home, with a targeted splashdown at approximately 3:41 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 15, off the coast of California.

NASA will provide coverage of the deorbit burn, entry and splashdown beginning at 2:15 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime and the agency’s YouTube channel. The Crew-11 mission, part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, will return after completing a long-duration science mission; the four launched on Aug. 1, 2025 and docked the following day.

Key Topics

Science, International Space Station, Spacex Dragon, Nasa, Commercial Crew Program, Zena Cardman