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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
SpaceX Crew-11 Safely Back On Earth Off California. Aired 4:30- 5a ET
Aired January 15, 2026 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
TARIQ MALIK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SPACE.COM: -- profile for folks to see about how bittersweet this moment was and how lucky he felt to be commander of the space station on this most recent flight and, you know, and how great the team was both on -- in space and on the ground.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: And NASA just saying that Mike has spent a total of 549 total days in space. I mean, really hard to sort of wrap your head around, David.
DAVID WOLF, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: That is a lot of time. Humans are definitely leaving the planet.
SOLOMON: And Tariq, your sense, 549 days, I mean, that is -- that is incredible. And what a story for his child that, you know, I wish I could have been there, but I was in space performing these missions for mankind.
MALIK: That's right. He is fourth on NASA's list --
WOLF: Yes.
MALIK: -- of most astronauts.
SOLOMON: All right, let's listen together. Let's listen as he was talking.
WOLF: It's the I was in space excuse for all the events.
SOLOMON: Yes. OK. We're seeing another astronaut come out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't quite see.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First mission to space.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Commander Cardman there. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible) crew-11 spacecraft.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: OK. Zena Cardman there also looking like she's in positive spirits. And look, I should say, although it's a medical issue, fists up in the air, really positive spirits. Although it was a medical issue that cut this mission short. We don't know how serious it was.
I mean, you know, one quote that I read is that the astronaut is absolutely stable and that this was out of an abundance of caution. And so from what we've seen, everyone seems to be really positive, really upbeat, and, you know, maybe a little feeling a little bittersweet that the mission came to an end a little earlier. But they're back, they're safe, and we'll obviously learn a lot more about what they were able to study and their time in space.
Ed, let me -- let me bring you into the conversation. So we've now had two of the four disembark from the capsule. Give us again the lay of the land of what happens now as we await the final two.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, yes, there's two more in the Russian cosmonaut and the Japanese astronaut. The first two taking off were the Americans. And now they're being, as you can see, they're rolled back into the ship. It's really interesting.
Just like, you know, they're able to -- you can see that the astronauts are able to almost kind of stand up on their own, but they definitely need that assistance from those other team members that are there on the platform of that ship to get them onto that stretcher and that gurney. And there will be more medical checks that are done there on the ship. And then once all four of them are out, they will be taken to land here shortly. So I think probably within the hour of memory serves on how quickly some of these things can take place from previous missions. But, you know, right now they're moving out the last two, and then they will be taken to a hospital on land there in the San Diego area.
SOLOMON: And I just want to read for our audience something that just came through. I didn't hear it because we've been on the air talking, but apparently NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, when she did disembark, we watched it happen, but we didn't hear it happen, she said, SpaceX Dragon, it's so good to be home with deep gratitude to the teams who got us there and back.
Dr. Asrar, if I can ask -- OK, we now we have our third astronaut disembarking. Doctor, if I can ask as Ed just explained, they're going to ultimately be taken to a hospital for medical evaluation. What types of tests will be run? What will that look like?
DR. FARHAN ASRAR, SPACE MEDICINE RESEARCHER: So they're just basically generally, I would say, quite an extensive kind of an assessment of the individual as a whole in terms of how they're doing. Obviously, like in terms of even now just getting used to gravity is very hard. So in terms of even, let's say, movements or any kind of these assessments, it's really kind of looking at even one's reflexes. And so is like, are they basically any issues, any concerns been going on since, well, their time in space, the reentry component though, as well, and now just in that kind of rehabilitation. So that's basically more of the general, like I would say a physical assessment that they would be doing as well as just interacting with the astronauts to see how are they feeling?
Are they feeling disoriented? They -- are they having any kind of like lightheadedness, dizziness, any other changes as well? But their general vitals and other parameters will be checked quite regularly and ongoing.
SOLOMON: David, if I can bring you back into the conversation, one question that's sort of been floating out there. And again, the caveat is we don't know what the medical issue is here that prompted this early return, but one question that I've seen sort of floating around is, might this have been different if there was a doctor on board? What are your thoughts about that as someone who's also traveled in the space station?
[04:35:14]
WOLF: Are you asking me, Rahel? It's David.
SOLOMON: Yes, David. Mm.
WOLF: I probably -- I don't think there would have been a difference. There's a narrow window of medical conditions that you couldn't -- you both can't handle in space and you need -- and are serious enough to come home. I think you'd have got the same answer.
I believe, and I've talked to people, my -- the people I know at NASA, they didn't have the diagnostic capability to know what they were really dealing with here. And so they needed to come home. If you keep rolling the dice, you'll get caught eventually. So you need to go ahead and get home where definitive diagnostics can be achieved. There's no MRI machine in space.
There's no MRS machine. There's -- there is a lot of capability. It's a serious telemedicine system up in space. But it doesn't cut -- it's a little weak in the diagnostics because the weight limitations and the power limitations.
And so I'm pretty sure this is a diagnostics issue, not a treatment issue. They just need to get to where definitive diagnostics. I would venture to my thinking that's where we are.
SOLOMON: Fair enough. Well, thank you one, thank you all for being with us for the last 36 minutes or so as we watch this all unfold minute by minute. Appreciate you all. Don't go anywhere. We're going to come back and talk to you a little later in the program.
But again, thank you all, gentlemen. Thanks so much.
All right, and we're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back.
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[04:41:27]
SOLOMON: Welcome back. Into Minneapolis now where local leaders are appealing for calm after federal agents clashed with protesters over another officer involved shooting on Wednesday night. The Department of Homeland Security says that a federal officer shot a man in the leg after the suspect allegedly or subject allegedly resisted arrest and assaulted the officer. The man was taken to the hospital with non life threatening injuries.
Demonstrators gathered near the scene facing off against law enforcement who deployed tear gas, pepper balls and what sounded like flashbangs. The city's on edge following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent one week ago. The mayor of Minneapolis says that the presence of federal agents in the city is, quote, "unsustainable."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: The crowd is engaging in unlawful acts. They have thrown fireworks at police officers and at multiple times gas has been deployed. Police are attempting to disperse this unlawful assembly at this time. I urge anyone that is at the scene to leave immediately. This is already a very tense situation and we do not need this to escalate any further.
JACOB FREY, MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR: This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in. And at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order. And we're in a position right now where we have residents that are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight ICE agents on the street, to stand by their neighbors. We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Right. And still ahead for us, we are also keeping track of the turmoil in Iran after the government closed its airspace and insists it that claims of violence against protesters are grossly inflated. That's coming up next.
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[04:48:11]
SOLOMON: Welcome back. In Iran, both domestic and international flights have now resumed after the government reopened its airspace. It was closed to all air traffic for several hours earlier and it's unclear why. But the U.S. and a number of European countries are warning their citizens to get out of the country amid the deadly government crackdown. Meanwhile, Iran's judiciary is denying claims that a detained protester was due to be executed. According to state media, Irfan Sultani has not been sentenced to death. The 26-year-old was arrested at his home last week in connection with the protests. U.S. State Department, his family and human rights groups had warned that he would be executed. But Iran is now calling that fabricated news and says that he's been charged with assembly and collusion and propaganda activities. This comes after President Donald Trump warned Iran against executing protesters and then on Wednesday he claimed that killings would not take place without further detail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We were told that the killing in Iran is stopping and it's stopped -- stopping and there's no plan for executions or an execution or executions. So I've been told that a good authority will find out about it. I'm sure if it happens, we'll all be very upset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says that it has received nearly 400,000 reports of security violations and suspected terrorist activities leading in some cases to arrests. A warning that the video you are about to see is disturbing. Video posted online appears to show rows of body bags in Tehran province. The U.S. based human rights group estimates more than 2,400 protesters have been killed since the start of the crackdown. But Iran's foreign minister insists that figure is exaggerated and part of a misinformation campaign.
[04:50:03]
Still ahead for us, we continue to follow that breaking news out of Southern California where a SpaceX capsule has returned to Earth. What's next for the four crew members just back from space? We'll be right back.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Call out the altitude from her seat there.
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SOLOMON: Verizon says it has resolved an hours long outage that's believed to have affected tens of thousands of people in the U.S. The disruption cut off access to voice and data services for much of Wednesday, leaving Verizon customers without the ability to make phone calls, send text messages or use data. Verizon has apologized for the outage and says that it plans to provide account credit to those impacted.
[04:55:07] And if you've been with us for the last hour, you know the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule has landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California. It carried four crew members who left the International Space Station on Wednesday. After reentering Earth's atmosphere, the Dragon capsule deployed two sets of parachutes before then splashing down. Recovery ships were then sent out to pull the capsule from the water. On board were two American astronauts, one Japanese astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut.
They came back to Earth earlier than planned after one crew member fell ill. We don't know which astronaut or crew member it was or what exactly the medical issue is, but I can say that NASA is having a press conference expected within the next hour or so, which we plan to carry.
But that'll do it for us at least for this hour. Thanks for being with us here on Early Start. Our coverage continues in the next hour. I will be back with you.
I'm your host Solomon live in New York. I'll see you after this quick break.
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