The first medical evacuation in the history of the International Space Station will take place on Jan. 14, when the four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission head home.

SpaceX says it's Dragon spacecraft at the International Space Station is ready to return its four Crew-11 astronauts home in an unprecedented medical evacuation on Jan. 14 and 15. "Dragon and Crew-11 are targeted t undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday, January 14," SpaceX wrote in a mission update on X late yesterday.

On Thursday, NASA made the historic announcement that, for the first time in history, the International Space Station will be evacuated after one of the astronauts fell ill with what NASA described as a “serious,” but undisclosed medical condition.

NASA has spent the last few weeks getting ready for two spacewalks at the International Space Station (ISS), its first in eight months. But just hours before NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman were due to begin the first of the two walks on Thursday,

His reassurance of Artemis 2's timeline, which is slated to roll to the launchpad for a liftoff no earlier than Feb. 5, comes amid NASA's decision to cut short an ISS crew rotation due to medical concerns for the first time ever.