NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Post-Flight News Conference (Jan. 21, 2026)

Who speaks in this episode?

• Zena Cardman (Main speaker; Crew-11 commander (as introduced in episode))
• Mike Fincke (Main speaker; Crew-11 pilot; ISS commander (as stated in episode))
• Kimiya Yui (Main speaker; JAXA mission specialist (per episode))
• Oleg Platonov (Main speaker; Roscosmos mission specialist (per episode))

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Zena Cardman, International Space Station, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Mike Fincke, International Space Station, Zena Cardman, Crew Dragon
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Oleg Platonov
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Kimiya Yui, Crew Dragon, Soyuz
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Crew Dragon, Artemis
6. 25:00 – 30:00: Kimiya Yui
7. 35:00 – 40:00: International Space Station
8. 45:00 – 50:00: International Space Station

Notable quotes from "NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Post-Flight News Conference (Jan. 21, 2026)"

• 11 returned to Earth last Thursday, January 15th, following a five and a half month mission aboard the International Space Station.

  about International Space Station · at 3:20

• Yeah. Wow. So here we are, back on the most beautiful planet in the solar system. And thanks, everyone for taking time out of your day, because.

  about Mike Fincke · at 5:12

• Well honed machine here at the Johnson Space Center and around the world. So when we're getting ready for Artemis, I am very optimistic. So I talked a lot. But go ahead.

  about Artemis · at 9:37

• Also including ground, ground and also everybody actually helped us a lot. And I think this is great because we I think we showed everybody about international cooperation, importance of the international.

  about Zena Cardman · at 10:23

• Help and support during preparation, during flight. And I'm really happy. It was unbelievable, unforgettable in increments for me. It of course was first flight for me and I'm happy to have you with me.

  about Kimiya Yui · at 11:58

• So last flight was by Soyuz and this time as a Crew Dragon.

  about Soyuz · at 19:40

• I really liked actually training at in Starliner and also really like the design concept. Yeah. Very capable. So of course I would like to fly.

  about Crew Dragon · at 29:55

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Zena Cardman — Person · Main speaker; Crew-11 commander (as introduced in episode) · 3 mentions · first at 3:06
  Introduces the Crew-11 postflight remarks, sets privacy boundaries around the medical return, and answers multiple questions about training, EVA cancellation, and mission highlights.
• Mike Fincke — Person · Main speaker; Crew-11 pilot; ISS commander (as stated in episode) · 3 mentions · first at 3:08
  Provides extensive mission narrative, compares spacecraft experiences (Shuttle/Soyuz/Dragon), discusses science highlights, operations replanning, and medical equipment utility (portable ultrasound).
• Kimiya Yui — Person · Main speaker; JAXA mission specialist (per episode) · 3 mentions · first at 3:13
  Represents JAXA on Crew-11, emphasizes international cooperation, compares Soyuz vs Crew Dragon experience, and comments on future Starliner interest and JAXA flight opportunities.
• Oleg Platonov — Person · Main speaker; Roscosmos mission specialist (per episode) · 2 mentions · first at 3:17
  Represents Roscosmos on Crew-11, describes first-flight impressions (Earth view from Dragon), thanks international control centers, and reflects on crew cohesion and station life.
  Also including ground, ground and also everybody actually helped us a lot. And I think this is great because we I think we showed everybody about international cooperation, importance of the international.

Products & tech

• Crew Dragon — Product · Case study · 3 mentions · first at 8:33
  Crew Dragon is mentioned as the spacecraft used by the crew for their mission, highlighting its features and performance.
• Soyuz — Product · Case study · 1 mention · first at 19:40
  Soyuz is mentioned as another spacecraft used by the crew, comparing its features and experiences with Crew Dragon.

Concepts & topics

• International Space Station — Concept · Core topic · 6 mentions · first at 3:27
  The International Space Station is the main setting for the crew's mission and experiences discussed in the podcast.
• Artemis — Concept · Key argument · 2 mentions · first at 9:42
  Artemis is mentioned as a future exploration program, indicating NASA's plans beyond the International Space Station.

Places & events

• NASA Johnson Space Center — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 3:01
  NASA Johnson Space Center is the location where the podcast is hosted, serving as the backdrop for the discussion.
  Ongoing mission of the International Space Station as a whole. We have crew members still on orbit carrying that mission out. We are so proud that we got to be on orbit for the 25th anniversary of.

Full transcript with timestamps

2:57 Good afternoon, and welcome to NASA's Johnson Space Center. I'm Anna Schneider with NASA communications, and today I am joined by our crew 11 crew, including NASA astronaut and commander Zena Cardman, NASA astronaut and pilot Mike Fincke, Jaxa astronaut and mission specialist Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Oleg Platonov. Crew 11 returned to Earth last Thursday, January 15th, following a five and a half month mission aboard the International Space Station. Today they are joining us to provide some comments following their mission, and we will begin with some opening remarks from the crew before we open it up for questions, both here in the room and online. For those who are joining us on the phone bridge, you can press Star one to enter the queue and you can press star two to remove yourself from the queue if your question has been asked. For those on social media, you can

3:51 use the hashtag ask NASA to ask a question as well. And with that, I will go ahead and turn it over to NASA astronaut and commander Zena Cardman.

3:59 Thank you so much. It's great to see everyone here in person. And thank you to all joining us online. We're very happy to be here and happy to be answering your questions. After a really amazing mission and a great, successful mission. Just to start off, of course, we are back here a little earlier than we were expecting. And just to say it up front, we are not going to be identifying the crew member or talking through the differential or any of the details of the medical situation. Thank you so much for respecting our privacy.

4:29 What I will say is, I'm deeply proud of the way that our crew came together, and incredibly grateful for all of our mission control, flight control team, our crew on orbit, the team on the ground, our doctors, and the way that NASA and space came together in a way that minimized risk to the crew, to our spacecraft, and to the ongoing mission of the International Space Station as a whole. We have crew members still on orbit carrying that mission out. We are so proud that we got to be on orbit for the 25th anniversary of continued human presence in space. It's been an incredible mission, and we're here to talk about that mission as a whole.

5:07 I'll pass it now to Mike Fincke, who was the commander of the International Space Station.

5:12 Yeah. Wow. So here we are, back on the most beautiful planet in the solar system. And thanks, everyone for taking time out of your day, because we have a really cool story. And so about seven months ago, we were sitting in these same seats for the pre preflight press conference. And I think Zena said it. She said it's not when you fly, it's with whom you fly. And boy was she right. What a what a great crew to fly with. And not just us but we I'm going to expand here a little bit. We started out with one Sergei, one Alexei and a Jonny Kim. And then on our on the Soyuz crew as part. And then we were part of expedition 73. Then we, then we inherited two Sergey and a Chris. I don't know what the next flight is going to be like, but there's a progression here. But we we really had a great crew across the board are part of expedition 73. And then the crew that's on board as we were as expedition 74. And it was

6:13 just really amazing. I salute my crewmates. It was definitely Zena. You were right again. And it was definitely with whom you Fly. I remember every day that we had together on all the amazing things we did. But one thing that when you first said it, Zena, I didn't fully appreciate, it's with whom you fly, right? Our ground control teams. How awesome we had such a great rapport with with all around the world. And it was great every morning and every evening having a chance to to share that with, with, with the rest of the world. There were we were getting great science done. We, we were singing songs to each other on Christmas. A flight director, you know, gave us some really great Christmas songs that were space themed. I mean, this was this was just a joy to fly. And not just with this, this great group here, but the the whole team around the world. And we shared a lot of amazing things. Some of the

7:08 things we did with science was amazing. The zero Boiloff test comes to mind. Or or the stem cell research being up on board during a government shutdown and still everything keep going and and then and then the 25th anniversary of continuous human habitation. I was fortunate enough to be there when the space station was tiny. We only went as far as the lab. It was 2004, so not quite 25 years ago, but. And then to come back aboard a space station that is so full with seven crew members, getting some world class science done, something amazing happening every day. What a joy to fly. We were getting ready for Eva Zina's first. By the way. She's really awesome. It was. It was great to fly with you, Zena. She was a natural when we first got there. Oleg.

7:58 This was his first mission too. What a natural. They adapted super fast and became incredibly productive crewmates, thank you for your hard work. Thank you. He used to thank us every day for our hard work. So finally I get to thank him for his hard work. It was a joy flying with each and every one of you and we did some amazing things together. So I'm talking a lot, but I just want to say that we when we were getting ready for an Eva, something happened. The team came together. And it wasn't just this team, but the whole team, like Zena said, around the world. And we were able to come home safely to our families, back to beautiful planet Earth, turned into a fireball over over San Diego, plasma everywhere. It was beautiful reentry and splashdown. The dolphins came to visit us and then we were rocked. We weren't allowed to sleep, but we were kind of rocked very carefully by by the gentle waves of the

8:53 Pacific Ocean. And what a what a neat adventure it was to share with each and every one of you. Station is in good hands with Chris Williams and to Sergei's, and we are continuing on and we got to see our our crew, 12 friends that are going to be launching really soon. And they were there when we stepped out of the plane at Ellington, and it was really nice to see them. We were hoping to give them hugs in space, but we gave them hugs on earth. It it all works out. Space station is going super strong. I'm very proud of the space station that we built and what humans can do, but how we handled everything all the way through, through nominal operations to this unforeseen operations really bodes well for future exploration. We are well honed machine here at the Johnson Space Center and around the world. So when we're getting ready for Artemis, I am very optimistic. So so I talked a lot. But go ahead.

9:51 Thank you for your hard work. Thank you. Yeah. Also, Mike explained a lot and I mean almost nothing to add, but thank you very much for this opportunity to talk about our great experience to everybody. And I'm so grateful I was the member of the this great team. And of course we came back a little bit early, but we worked very hard, worked together and helped each other and also accomplished a lot, actually, not only our crew members, but also including ground, ground and also everybody actually helped us a lot. And I think this is great because we I think we showed everybody about international cooperation, importance of the international cooperation. And this is kind of like a bright side of humankind where we can work together and accomplish very good. And also, this is kind of like a good vector to the bright future. So I think we were able to show us a good example for everybody. And we

11:00 are going to keep talking about our great experience. And hopefully people think actually our bright is bright. So bright. If people believe that actually we can accomplish that. And if we're going to actually keep working on that, even on the ground, we are I'm going to keep talking about our great experience. So thank you very much for your support.

11:33 Hello, everybody. I was really happy to be as a part of crew Elevon: I had, and I have super awesome crewmates, Zena Sansei, Michael Son, Kimia Sansei, my commander, pilot, and me in this crew. And also I would like to say for you, thank you very much for your help and support during preparation, during flight. And I'm really happy. It was unbelievable, unforgettable in increments for me. It of course was first flight for me and I'm happy to have you with me during this flight. And also I would I would like to say thank you very much for this opportunity. Thank you. My country Roscosmos NASA United States and space. It's super opportunity for me to have this flight. And also thank you very much. Ground team in the whole mix. Moscow, Houston, Tsukuba Munich.

12:48 Huntsville. Thank you for your great work and support. And thank you very much, everybody.

12:54 All right. Thank you. And with that we will go ahead and open it up for questions beginning here in the room before going to the phone bridge. As a reminder for those joining us on the phone bridge, you can press star one to enter the Q and star two to remove yourself from the question queue. When called on, please state your name and affiliation as well as to whom your question is addressed. And with that, we will begin here in the room.

13:19 Thank you. I'm Mark Kerrod with Aviation Week and Space Technology. With the space station nearing its end of life, I know there's been a lot of discussion about trying to get as much done as possible that you can do up there, and you had a pretty full agenda. I just wondering, even though you left a little bit early, do you feel that that may have subtracted from the ability to do everything, or did you really charge on and get as much done as you could and leave? I know there's only three now for just a little bit, but do you think the desire to get as much done in the research and tech development will be interrupted very much by what happened?

14:09 So if I could just take that one. Our crew was a very productive crew, and our ground teams were amazing because they they balanced everything based on what we could, what we could deliver, and to make sure that we had enough rest. And it was a very nice pace and it was a it was a lot of things to get done. And yes, we left, we came home about a month early and that is going to affect the timeline a little bit. Just because there aren't seven people, there's three. And but what's really neat is that our replan capabilities are great and we didn't we're not missing anything that had to be done time critically, we were able to move things around. We have still have three cargo ships on the Usos side and I think two progresses on board, so there is still a lot of unpacking and packing to do just for the cargo operations. Not to mention, you know, all of the science and everything else. We left a really capable crew on

15:07 board. Sergey Kud-sverchkov is a great commander. Chris Williams came up and with with great enthusiasm and willingness to learn. So we're in very good hands. Yeah, there's going to be a little bit of a difference in schedule, but they're going to we're going to be able to accomplish everything we need to do. When crew 12 arrives, they're going to hit the ground running. But again, we have this down to a really nice system where our mission control teams are planning teams, the space station program, all kind of take a good pulse and give us as much work as we can do. And and we, we we as crews tried to deliver and there's, there's flexibility in the schedule.

15:49 And that's what keeps the space station going. And yeah there's there's still some more years left in our beautiful space station.

15:58 All right. Thank you. We'll go ahead and go to the phone bridge for a few questions. First up we have Anthony Anthony Leone with Spectrum News.

16:09 Hello everyone and thank you so much for taking questions today with. What happened up there. What type of suggestions would you recommend for future missions and would each of you, if you could, would you want to go back just to finish finish the mission the way you were hoping to? Thank you.

16:36 I hope to go back to Ís for so many reasons. It's just an incredible experience and I think even though we had an unexpected timeline, there's so much that we are proud of and so much we did accomplish. Like Mike mentioned, we welcomed so many visiting vehicles. We had every single docking port full at one point while we were up there, which is just absolutely incredible. So we got a lot of research done, a lot of cargo transferred, setting up the space station for really the rest of it's incredible career. As far as things do we would differently. I am very proud to say that we were as well prepared as we possibly could be, and that's thanks to a lot of really excellent training that we get on the ground. And just being up there with really excellent operators and people who come together as a team really goes a long way. And that's the crew on orbit as well as our ground support teams.

17:37 All right, next up on the phone bridge, we have Jonathan Sari with Fox News. Thank you so much for doing this. And welcome home for Zena and Oleg. How did your first spaceflight live up to expectations? I know you worked hard to prepare, but are there things that you just have to experience firsthand that stood out and surprised you? And for Mike and Kimi, how did your first flight on Dragon compared to the Space Shuttle?

18:08 For me, one of the surprising things was almost how unsurprising it was, if that makes sense. I felt incredibly well prepared. Thanks to all of the excellent training that we get here at Johnson Space Center, at our international partners, and at SpaceX. Of course, there are some things that you just have to experience for yourself, but for me, those were all a thrill and a joy. I actually enjoyed reentry even more than launch. It was. It was a lot of fun, and I'm very grateful that I got to experience that with this crew specifically.

18:45 I absolutely agree with Zena. Launch and reentry was super amazing and active time. It was nice and I was surprised how our Earth, our planet beautiful and its most beautiful when we can can see on the picture. I was surprised. It's a big difference between picture and real view from Dragon Dragon Dragon's windows. What I saw first time after and I think that's all. And I also was surprised how my crew is great.

19:35 Shouldn't be big surprise. Yeah. Yes. So last flight was by Soyuz and this time as a Crew Dragon. I was so surprised. Actually, Crew Dragon flight was so smooth and very comfortable. And just like future like, like touch panels, like a very, I mean, cool future looking nice, like suits. Yeah. So I really enjoy it. But just just just differences. So I really loved actually both both experience. So landing on the hard surface that's also good a little bit harder landing but no shaking after landing. That's also good.

20:16 Soft landing. But after landing shaking that's also good. So I really enjoy it. Thank you.

20:24 So between flights I. From Soyuz and space shuttle, I helped worked with the Commercial crew program and I was really glad to to fly on on Dragon. Of course, Kimi and I were at one time going to be on Starliner. That's still going, but Dragon wow, all the way from the launch it was you could feel the Falcon nine talk to you and all the way up. It was hard to hear the Falcon nine, though, because I had some. I think there were some shouts of joy and giggles and things going on as we were, as we were launching and enjoying the experience. And that's such a human thing. And then coming back. Zena Commander made a brilliant choice of turning down the lights so we could see the plasma through the windows and the orange glow. And I will say that it was. The shuttle came in at a very benignly with its profile, and it was more of a pink glow. Soyuz has an ablative heat shield that really speaks to you with lots

21:23 of different kind of fireworks in a very, very good way. It works great. And then, and Dragon was somewhere in between. We hit five G's on the way down, which the you know, the guy who flies fighter airplanes in me was like, yeah, this is it. When I could breathe. And then and then then the splashdown was my first splashdown, and it was very nice. I was I like Splashdowns, so we're going to it would be great to compare notes with the Artemis crew when they have their splashdown. And we can compare Splashdowns and not very many people with astronaut bar space bar. Right.

21:58 Will be able to to to compare Splashdowns anymore. So this is going to be fun and what a great crew you hats off to you commander.

22:07 All right. Next up we have Marsha Dunn with the Associated Press. Yes. Hi. For Xena, you were just one day away from making your first spacewalk when it was called off. How crushing was that? And also, if one or more of you could just talk a little bit about the medical equipment aboard the space station and how it did or didn't prove useful, any recommendations on future first aid kits?

22:33 Yeah, for me, of course, spacewalking is something that we all train for, and we had multiple crew members on board who were qualified to do a spacewalk. It was absolutely something I was looking forward to doing, but it's also something that's completely out of our control. We just finished an expedition that did not have any spacewalks, and even though someone like my classmate Johnny Kim was incredibly well prepared, simply didn't have the opportunity to do a spacewalk. So it's actually not about any individual. Spaceflight is much larger than any single person, and in the moment, you're not really thinking about me and this thing that happened to me.

23:16 You're thinking about the mission, and your crew and NASA made all the right decisions. In my opinion. This is a really excellent example of risk analysis and decision making, and I'm very proud of the decision they made.

23:31 Just to add on to that, just a little bit about the equipment. One of the things I remember from expedition nine is we just started working with ultrasound machines, and I think the ultrasound technology has gotten better on planet Earth, and we've taken that into space. And having a portable ultrasound machine helped us in this situation. We were able to to take a look at things that we had and didn't have, but and all of my crewmates were, we got so much experience with ultrasound in looking at human bodies as we change over time as part of science and medicine. So when we had this emergency ultrasound machine came in super handy. So I'd recommend a portable ultrasound machine in the future for sure. For all space flights. It really helped.

24:13 Now, of course, we didn't have other big machines that we have here on planet Earth, and maybe some of those can't be in space. And we do try to make sure that everybody, before we fly are really, really not prone to to surprises. But sometimes things happen and surprises happen. And the team was ready. And that was like Xena said, preparation was super important.

24:37 Next up, we'll go to Robert Pearlman with Collectspace. Thank you. A question for Mike and one for Zena. Mike, once it was decided that you and your crewmates were coming back early, was did it become sort of a scramble to get packed up, or did you forego or abbreviate what you'd normally pack to for the ride home? And for Zena? At the very start of the mission, we all got to very briefly see your zero g indicator and heard that it was really to a shared experience with a space training member. Can you elaborate a bit more on why a Seal and what that experience was?

25:17 So we had we had made a promise to ourselves as a crew not to be last minute in getting packed and prepared. Fortunately, the we had enough time to make sure that our dragon was ready to go, and in a few interstitial spaces we were able to to make sure that we had our things packed and ready to go home. And I think because being ready a little bit ahead of time, Zena says, I don't like doing stuff at the last minute. And we all agreed with her. We we listen to her and and those are true words of wisdom. So we, we we weren't super rushed, Robert, but it was. But it was definitely we were focusing on the things of making sure we, as a crew and our dragon were ready to go, and that we handed over any last minute pearls of wisdom to Chris and to Sergey and Sergey.

26:09 Yeah, for the zero g indicator. Forgive me. I won't read you in on the exact inside joke, but it is a shared memory with our space lead trainer, Paul Weiss, and that whole training team who got us ready for this flight. And Paul was actually also my lead trainer for crew nine and that lead up. And so he has been just such a steadfast friend and excellent trainer getting us ready for this spaceflight. So we really felt like Paul was with us in the capsule. And we very frequently said, let's make Paul proud with our actions and our decisions, and I hope we did so thanks, Paul.

26:45 We will take a quick question from social media at two on Instagram asks what did you miss most about Earth?

26:55 Oh. Yeah. Certainly the people. You didn't miss me. I was there with you. So what else did you miss? You first.

27:09 I just forgot. All right, next up we have. I. Okay, I'll say what everyone missed. Kimmy missed a hamburgers and French.

27:22 Fries. As we talked about this. You are right. Yes, yes, because I complained about missing hamburgers and French fries. And, Oleg, I think you missed your beautiful wife, Irina.

27:35 Absolutely. And. And Zena, you missed a lot of things. But you were, I think, born to be in space.

27:42 I was pretty happy there. But I did Miss Ramon. Yes, yes. And any kind of noodles became ramen, even if they weren't really ramen. We called them ramen.

27:52 All right, next up we have Will Robinson. Smith with Spaceflight Now. Hey, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Question to Mike and potentially Kimya if you'd like to chime in. Mike, you briefly touched on Starliner and, you know, in your time on orbit, both of your colleagues who flew the CFT mission, Butch and Sunny, announced their retirement from the astronaut corps. So given that you and Nicole Mann are the last two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but remaining NASA astronauts who have been trained on Starliner at least publicly announced, do you envision that Starliner is ready to carry crew again? You might be a part of a future crew. Is that too early to ask that question? Or how do you kind of see yourself moving forward with with that part of the Commercial Crew program?

28:46 Thanks. Yeah, that's a that's a great story about Starliner and and where we are with that. And we're wishing Boeing and the Commercial Crew program some super success in getting Starliner. It's really in NASA's interest to have two partners that can fly spaceships. And the more people flying in space, the better off we are. I think we are just focusing right now on on rehabilitation and getting back and and getting maybe back in line because because it was such a nice ride and, and we'd like to get back in line again.

29:19 But in the meantime, though, there's a lot of capable astronauts. And I think we're all going to, you know, we'll figure out who's going to fly the next starliners. But at some point in life, if they ask you, you want to you want to go fly. Of course, you know, it's hard to say no. In the meantime, if I had a chance to fly with any one of you again, I would immediately say yes. I'd cancel any retirement plans and get right back to flying. This is such, such an amazing crew. And Zena was right again about it's not when, but with whom? And you. Shall we go fly Starliner?

29:53 What do you think? Yeah, I really want to. I really liked actually training at in Starliner and also really like the design concept. Yeah. Very capable. So of course I would like to fly as Starliner on Starliner. But on the other hand Jaxa has less slot actually to send Jaxa astronaut to Ís. And I just want to support actually young astronauts to go to Ís. So yeah, probably this flight might be the last one. So I just want to support other crew members. I mean, Jaxa astronauts from the ground. Thank you.

30:33 All right. Next up we have Joey Roulette with Reuters. Hey thank you. Question for Kimiya. And Oleg, I'm curious to hear what you two think about being part of the first kind of medical return from the Ís. And did either of you help or play any role in managing this medical concern? Thanks.

30:55 Okay. Thank you for the great question. Actually, for me, I was so surprised. Like, training actually works very well. And also including I mean everybody crew members also ground team works actually well prepared actually training wise. So we can handle anything including like planning, planning everything. So I was so surprised actually because of the 25th of like history of operation Ís operations, we are very capable. And if we use this kind of experience, actually our future human spaceflight will be very, very actually. I mean, we can handle any kind of difficult situation.

31:42 I thought. So, of course, we came back early, but including this kind of decision, this is actually very, very good experience for the future human space flight. Thank you.

31:57 Next up we have Manuel Manzotti with Exploration Special. Thank you so much. From the cover the space program in Spanish. Two quick questions. The first one with any one of you who can answer because I don't know who was particularly involved about this edge computing experiment developed along with Red Hat and National lab Axiom Space. Could you go into details on how was implemented and what kind of information of data was used in order to perform the experiment? And then a quick question for Zena, could you finally did you find the time to write some poetry?

32:40 Oh gosh, I found time to read, actually a lot of poetry. For me. It takes time for an experience to percolate, but I'm sure I'll be writing a lot in the weeks and months and years to come.

32:57 And as far as the edge computing on board the space station, I don't think we were involved with the actual computations. What we did was we were a little bit like IT support and made sure that the computers were had the power and connections with the Ethernet and the and the communications. So everything could work sometimes, especially with commercial payloads, we don't we aren't as super involved to know exactly what the results are, but I'm sure our friends at Red hat and the rest of the team, we tried to make sure that all of our payload customers were happy, and that we did our very best to help them, so I'm sure edge computing was was was pretty interesting, but we haven't heard the results yet.

33:44 And we will come back here in the room for question. Two of the Post newspaper. Mike, a quick question for you. Last time we were here, we talked about amateur radio and your interest in that, and it was a very good answer you gave me at that time. I'm curious, in the time that you were up there this time, were you able to participate in any events related to amateur radio, and were any of the experiments are off based? You worked on?

34:06 Yeah. So I was super excited and still am with amateur radio. What was what was interesting and what I was really proud of is that all my crewmates participated with our school outreach, and we salute the Iris team for sharing spaceflight with with people all over the world. I think I talked to a school in Africa. I think you had one in.

34:31 Japan. Japan and South America. Or were. Yeah, South America, Central America. I had one contact with a research ship that I worked on briefly, which was really special. That was very cool.

34:42 And we we didn't. I personally, I let myself down a little bit and not having too many random qsos out there, but we did reach out and have a chance to talk to people across the planet in whatever language, because that's that was a fun thing. There were some neat experiments also, especially on Russian side with with some some extra video, and we were definitely used to I guess there was some TV side on in Columbus module. I will say, just looking back at it, my first experience with amateur radio, it was all in the service module. We could actually look down through the windows of service module and kind of see where we were talking with. And and Columbus doesn't have a window, so it was a little harder to imagine.

35:29 So we put up a world map and you could see where you're getting into into range and out of range. But also you can just imagine what it must be like to some of these places that we could talk with. And I think if we had that extra month or so that we came, I would have liked to think that that version of me would have reached out on the radio and talked a little bit more. Maybe next time.

35:52 We will go back on the phone bridge. We have Shannon Perrine with WTA Pittsburgh.

35:57 Oh hello everyone. Yes, it's Shannon from the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh. And I will say Pittsburgh welcomes all of you home back to Earth. But a special hello to Michael Fink. Here's my question. What do you say that in your time though it was truncated in space, you were able to do to advance the cause and mission of science on Earth in your time there? And I'd also like to ask how you all are feeling right now, today.

36:35 Well, Shannon, thank you for the Pittsburgh welcome. And Haynes. Haynes doing and we are really it was great to be back up in space. I was I'm super proud of what we've accomplished in science. Yeah we were truncated by five and a half months is a long time to get a lot of good things done. One of the things that comes to mind is our stem cell research. That's just going to make things better. When you take gravity out of the equation. Cells can reorganize themselves in some really amazing ways, especially with stem cells.

37:09 They can be anything. So we're thinking that there's a nice future for not just the International Space Station, but for commercial space stations to to help with medicines and actually human grown organs and organelles that can really help with help people who are sick on the ground. And Pittsburgh is a great place like that. We're at the forefront of a lot of medicine, and there's a lot of room in the space program for research from, you know, from one of my favorite, okay, my favorite city.

37:43 All right. Next up we have Sophie Sanchez with Cosmic Chicago. Hi. Thank you for taking your call. My call? I'm sorry. Over the years, we've seen how different anomalies lead to new training and procedures. I know it's early days still, but can you share if you have any ideas how your unique experience might translate into new training for future astronauts? Is there anything new being discussed already? Thank you.

38:14 I don't know what new is being discussed already. I'm very sure that we will have a lot of great lessons that we can take away from this experience. I already feel very confident that we get really excellent training, especially for any kind of urgent situation that might arise. We're really well trained to get a situation stable. Beyond that, I think the farther afield we go as we journey beyond low Earth orbit, having tools on board to diagnose and treat a myriad of situations is going to be a really interesting problem to solve.

38:53 But while we're in low Earth orbit, I think we were as well set up as we possibly could be, and I'm really proud of the way the team reacted. So I would not actually want to train any differently than we already had.

39:07 Next up we have Ryan Keeton with Nasaspaceflight.com. Hi. Thanks for doing this. Welcome back to Earth, Ryan, Kate and NSF. I was just wondering, usually when the crew transfer happens on orbit, it's to my understanding that the outgoing handover, some advice or some other words to the incoming crew. So I'm just wondering if you'll be doing that with crew 12 on Earth rather than in space. Thank you.

39:38 Yeah, we wouldn't want crew 12 to hit the ground running or hit the space floating, something like that. And I think, I think all of us have some really good perspectives. I think Zina and Oleg can can help the especially the, the new fliers and on on what to expect. I think my only advice to them, just as we did with the change of command ceremony, was take time and stop for for a group hug.

40:07 Group hug and selfies and so great about photos. And crew 12 is not arriving to an empty space station. They have Chris, Sergey and Sergey there so they will get lots of handover. As far as dragon specific stuff, that's something that we're happy to talk to crew 12 about, and they're getting really great training in Hawthorne right now.

40:26 Next up we have Claire Cameron with the Scientific American. Hi there. This goes to anyone in the crew who wants to answer. What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced during the course of the mission, aside from obviously, the medical issue that prompted your return? And then also, you know, what were some of the science highlights whilst you were in orbit? Thanks.

41:00 Oh. Not enough hours in the day to take photos. That was one challenge. There's just so much to share and to do and to see, and I think I could stay there for 18 months and still feel like I didn't have enough time. Yeah, I think that was one of my biggest challenges. There's just so much to see and experience.

41:22 And it was all wonderful. I mean. Yeah. Seeing the Earth from so many different aspects, getting a chance to talk to people from all over the planet.

41:30 Absolutely. So many really interesting experiments that we got to take part in. Some of them are experiments where we're tracking our own human bodies and how they adapt to the spaceflight environment. I come from a life sciences background, and so I really loved all of the chances I had to work in the life sciences glove box. Of course, I'm very familiar with pipetting small volumes of liquids from one vial to another vial, but I'm not as familiar with those liquids kind of clinging to the tip of your cannula and trying to crawl out of the the tube that you're trying to put it into. Some really interesting quirks of working in this weightless environment. But again, you know, the farther afield that we start to go, the more we're going to need astronauts to be the eyes and ears and lab notebook for the researchers on the ground.

42:19 We're not always going to be the scientific experts. In fact, we rarely will be. And so I think the Ís has been an excellent proving ground for how we get science done, and also involve a mission control team that includes scientists and the experts here.

42:34 Super collaborative. We will come back in the room for a couple of questions. Thank you again, Mark. With Aviation Week and Space Technology. And I wanted to follow up on an earlier question I had. And I think this is for Mike or Zena. But Mike, you spoke confidently about not falling too far behind because of the training and the flexibility and the and the people who are going to follow up with the spaceship. Well, one of the things you're going to do at the end was a spacewalk to kick off, I think the seventh I Rosa to get eight installed in all to give the station adequate power for a whole lot of activity, and then for the deorbit. Do you feel as confident that they'll be able to catch up? And I think they'll look and try to look at the end of this year for the spacewalks to to at least receive both and maybe get the seventh or eighth installed.

43:36 But, you know, there's time. I just wondered how confident you feel they can move ahead.

43:42 Yeah. We we floated on the shoulders of giants. The previous crew had had started the erosa work. And so we were able to to consult with them and figure out how to continue on with the Erosa work. And I think similarly, the next crew that gets to go outside, we have those bags. They were really well packed and ready to go. The procedures were scrubbed and we'll work with them. Of course, as their friends on the ground. I do believe, Mark, like you said, is that again, I can't speak for the program, but I do think that the space station program has some flexibility. These weren't the immediate things that needed to be done like we had, I don't know, eight or 9 or 10 years ago with when we had a leak in our thermal control system that had to be done immediately. So I think there's some flexibility in getting getting the job done.

44:34 I'm just really amazed with all the variables, how well that our teams on the on the space station program side and the flight operations director at FOD side, how well we can come together and make a new plan. You know, we had a really great plan, didn't work. So we got a new plan coming up. And I do think that there's some flexibility and it will be great to help help our teams, at least from what we can do down here to make sure they're successful and the space station will just keep going. It's a wonderful, amazing space station that we've built, and it was just a real joy to be back on board.

45:11 We will take another question here in the room. Gina Ansari with CBS news. The briefing before your spacewalk. That didn't happen. They mentioned talked a little bit about the, you know, the new solar arrays, but sort of threading the needle between maintaining the space station but getting it ready to deorbit. Did that make your time up there? A little bittersweet thinking. So many good memories here.

45:39 I don't think I got to experience the bitter part of it. It was really. Yeah, it was all sweet for me. It was really special to get to see the space station. I don't know if all of our active astronauts right now will get to see the space station. And so I'm so grateful that I got to and that I got to be there with people like Mike and Kimya who have been there before, and Mike especially, who has been involved in constructing the space station from its infancy, really. And it's been such a marvelous, collaborative, incredible piece of human engineering and collaboration and to have our international partnerships there. I'm just so grateful that I got to see it.

46:24 We will take a couple of questions from social media before popping back to the phone. Bridge at Sean Vecchio on Instagram asks what is your or what was your favorite moment from your mission?

46:35 Oh. All of them. Can we choose all of them? Yeah. Oh gosh. Yeah, there's a lot to choose from. One really special one for me was celebrating New Year's with the crew. We it was, you know, off duty time for us. And we all gathered in the service module, the entire crew, our Soyuz fliers and dragonflies and just being there together as family and then calling each of the mission control centers as they at home, were experiencing their local New Year's Eve. It was just, yeah, really heartwarming. I don't know how else to put it.

47:15 Such a human event. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I one of my favorite times I liked all the times, but and I think Kimmy and I especially shared this because we knew how how wonderful a feeling it is. But when, when Oleg and Zina, you know, passed the Karman line and we were they got to see Earth for the first time. It became a real cosmonaut and and a instantly turned into a veteran astronaut right there, a flown astronaut, for sure. We were so happy for you both. It was it was just a really special time to share that joy with you.

47:50 I was giggling a lot. I thought that was Kimia. What was your special time? Yeah, for me, like, I mean, Japanese new cargo vehicle. Came successfully and everybody helped me a lot. So yeah, that was a great moment. Yeah, yeah.

48:10 Kimia reached out and grabbed it with the with the robot arm. But his arms were so long.

48:14 We were, we were we. Were thinking that if the robot arm broke, he was still just going to reach out and grab it.

48:21 Nope. Oleg. For me, all our parties was a great time. And one moment also I like. It was a moment when new service crew came to us and it's new people, and I was really happy to see new people and people on the station.

48:45 Thank you for that. And at Nils, 122000 on Instagram asks what was your favorite aspect of having free time on the International Space Station?

48:55 Oh, just looking out the cupola for me. Taking pictures. Absolutely. Yeah, that never got old.

49:04 Yeah, we had some free time, but not a lot. And I enjoyed free time when we like like like we mentioned it was we we had some time to spend together as a family, you know. And my first mission, we only had two people and I never got old. But it was really cool having seven people. And and the times that we spent together, we made sure that we had meals together at least once a week. Sometimes we did more. I think there was one week where we had special space cakes, 3 or 4, three, three cakes in one week for all kinds of celebrations and and milestones and people's careers.

49:42 So those kind of things. Yeah. And I think that's one thing that was definitely new with space cakes my first flight. And we we just get a cookie and put some icing on it. And that was good. But they got better.

49:55 We will head back on the phone for another question from Joey Roulette with Reuters.

50:03 Hi. Thank you. I just had a quick question. Hypothetical question about NASA's astronaut medical privacy policies. If the astronaut who suffered the medical issue wanted to identify themselves, would they be able to under NASA's rules? Or are these NASA rules requiring everyone to not talk about it? Thanks.

50:27 I have no idea. Actually not sure of the answer to that, so you'll have to ask someone else.

50:32 Yes. We Joey, we can follow up with you on that question. But as a reminder for this specific crew, we won't be disclosing any further details and the crew is not planning to identify themselves for this situation. All right. I think that is the final question we have for today. So we will go ahead and conclude today's news conference. Thank you for joining us. And welcome home crew Elevon:

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Post-Flight News Conference (Jan. 21, 2026)"?

Zena Cardman (Main speaker; Crew-11 commander (as introduced in episode)), Mike Fincke (Main speaker; Crew-11 pilot; ISS commander (as stated in episode)), Kimiya Yui (Main speaker; JAXA mission specialist (per episode)), Oleg Platonov (Main speaker; Roscosmos mission specialist (per episode)).

What is discussed in "NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Post-Flight News Conference (Jan. 21, 2026)"?

In order: 0:00 Zena Cardman, International Space Station, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui; 5:00 Mike Fincke, International Space Station, Zena Cardman, Crew Dragon; 10:00 Oleg Platonov; 15:00 Kimiya Yui, Crew Dragon, Soyuz; 20:00 Crew Dragon, Artemis; 25:00 Kimiya Yui; 35:00 International Space Station; 45:00 International Space Station.

What is mentioned in this NASA episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, International Space Station, Kimiya Yui, Oleg Platonov, NASA Johnson Space Center. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Post-Flight News Conference (Jan. 21, 2026)"?

The episode runs 51 min; the transcript is about 7,965 words in 95 timestamped sections.

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