SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A fast-moving bright light streaking over the Bay Area overnight Thursday has many people talking, sharing pictures on social media and wondering what they saw.
Was it a comet? Space junk? Turns out, it was astronauts returning to Earth from the International Space Station in NASA’s first medical evacuation.
The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with four astronauts on board flew past the Bay Area at around 12:20 a.m. before making splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego about 20 minutes later.
NASA said it had to scrub its mission a month early because one of the four astronauts needed to get back to Earth for medical attention. Officials declined to reveal which of the four is having health issues, and stressed that it was not an emergency.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov emerged from the capsule, one by one, within an hour of splashdown. They were helped onto reclining cots, waving to cameras, and then whisked away to a San Diego-area hospital for evaluations…