By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An astronaut in need of doctors’ care departed the International Space Station with three crewmates on Wednesday in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

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The four returning astronauts — from the U.S., Russia and Japan — are aiming for an early Thursday morning splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego with SpaceX. The decision cuts short their mission by over a month.

“Our timing of this departure is unexpected,” NASA astronaut Zena Cardman said before the return trip, “but what was not surprising to me was how well this crew came together as a family to help each other and just take care of each other.”

Officials refused to identify the astronaut who needed care last week and would not divulge the health concerns.

The ailing astronaut is “stable, safe and well cared for,” outgoing space station commander Mike Fincke said earlier this week via social media. “This was a deliberate decision to allow the right medical evaluations to happen on the ground, where the full range of diagnostic capability exists.”

Launched in August, Cardman, Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov should have remained on the space station until late February. But on Jan. 7, NASA abruptly canceled the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke and later announced the crew’s early return. Officials said the health problem was unrelated to spacewalk preparations or other station operations, but offered no other details, citing medical privacy. They stressed it was not an emergency situation.

NASA said it would stick to the same entry and splashdown procedures at flight’s end, with the usual assortment of medical experts aboard the recovery ship in the Pacific. It was another middle-of-the-night crew return for SpaceX, coming less than 11 hours after undocking from the space station. NASA said it was not yet known how quickly all four would be flown from California to Houston, home to Johnson Space Center and the base for astronauts.

One U.S. and two Russian astronauts remain aboard the orbiting lab, just 1 1/2 months into an eight-month mission that began with a Soyuz rocket liftoff from Kazakhstan. NASA and SpaceX are working to move up the launch of a fresh four-person crew from Florida, currently targeted for mid-February.

Computer modeling predicted a medical evacuation from the space station every three years, but NASA hasn’t had one in its 65 years of human spaceflight. The Russians have not been as fortunate. In 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin came down with a serious infection or related illness aboard his country’s Salyut 7 space station, prompting an early return. A few other Soviet cosmonauts encountered less serious health issues that shortened their flights.

It was the first spaceflight for Cardman, a 38, biologist and polar explorer who missed out on spacewalking, as well as Platonov, 39, a former fighter pilot with the Russian Air Force who had to wait a few extra years to get to space because of an undisclosed health issue. Cardman should have launched last year but was bumped to make room on the way down for NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were stuck nearly a year at the space station because of Boeing’s capsule problems.

Fincke, 58, a retired Air Force colonel, and Yui, 55, a retired fighter pilot with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, were repeat space fliers. Finke has spent 1 1/2 years in orbit over four missions and conducted nine spacewalks on previous flights, making him one of NASA’s top performers. Last week, Yui celebrated his 300th day in space over two station stays, sharing stunning views of Earth, including Japan’s Mount Fuji and breathtaking auroras.

“I want to burn it firmly into my eyes, and even more so, into my heart,” Yui said on the social platform X. “Soon, I too will become one of those small lights on the ground.”

NASA officials had said it was riskier to leave the astronaut in space without proper medical attention for another month than to temporarily reduce the size of the space station crew by more than half. Until SpaceX delivers another crew, NASA said it will have to stand down from any routine or even emergency spacewalks, a two-person job requiring backup help from crew inside the orbiting complex.

The medical evacuation was the first major decision by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman. The billionaire founder of a payment processing company and two-time space flier assumed the agency’s top job in December.

“The health and the well-being of our astronauts is always and will be our highest priority,” Isaacman said in announcing the decision last week.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A 47-year-old man found with homemade explosives and hundreds of rounds of high-powered ammunition after a traffic stop in Oak Park Heights and who prosecutors say identifies as a “sovereign citizen” was sentenced Wednesday to three years and four months in federal prison.

Wayne Robert Lund, of Stillwater, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis in September to possessing unregistered firearms, one of four charges in a December 2024 indictment. Charges of being a felon in possession of explosives, firearms and ammunition were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

Lund, after his November 2024 arrest, told police the “bomb items were actually used for his rocket hobby and is trying to get his rocket to different heights,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Washington County District Court, where he was initially charged in connection with the case.

According to state and federal court documents, Lund was pulled over on Minnesota 36 shortly after 2 a.m. Nov. 2, 2024, for driving with expired plates and a revoked license. His SUV was also uninsured, and a search of his car before it was towed turned up seven CO2 canisters with wicks and an eight-inch PVC pipe bomb in the trunk.

Officers called the St. Paul Bomb Squad, which identified the CO2 cartridges from photos as suspected “cricket” bombs, an informal term used by law enforcement to describe small, destructive devices built by packing explosives into a CO2 cartridge and adding a fuse.

Wayne Robert Lund (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

Homes and businesses in the immediate area of the impound lot were evacuated.

Other officers responded to a hotel room in Stillwater that Lund had been renting and evacuated the area around it. They recovered another cricket bomb, more than a hundred empty CO2 cartridges, a jug with explosive black powder, a three-ring binder entitled “List of Pyro Chemicals and Terms,” and documents related to “American Nationals and the Minnesota State Assembly (i.e., sovereign citizen movement),” court documents say.

A locked personal safe in the hotel room contained 804 rounds of ammunition, seven high-capacity rifle magazines filled with nearly 200 rounds of high-velocity .223-caliber ammunition, an airsoft grenade and a small amount of meth.

FBI agents executed a search warrant on a chest freezer belonging to Lund on property in Houlton, Wis., and found another cricket bomb, empty CO2 metal cartridges, black powder precursors and a gallon-sized milk jug half-filled with explosive powder.

In an interview with authorities, Lund admitted to building the cricket bombs in Wisconsin by filling them with one to two grams of explosive material, which he made, and inserting a wick into them, but he said they were rocket engines. He also said he has an interest in explosives as a hobby.

According to FBI bomb technicians, however, the cricket bombs were “destructive devices” that when ignited would “combust and possibly emit shrapnel from the exploding cartridge casing,” the indictment said.

Sentencing

Lund, whose criminal history includes a 2014 threats of violence conviction, faced a guideline sentence between 46 and 57 months in prison at Wednesday’s sentencing.

Lund’s attorney Daniel Gerdts said in a defense sentencing memo that Lund disputes the claim he’s a sovereign citizen, who believe they are not subject to federal, state or local laws.

“He has admitted that his conduct violated the valid laws of this land, and he has accepted responsibility for it,” Gerdts wrote. “In other words, the ‘sovereign citizen’ label does not apply to Mr. Lund — as he has patiently tried to explain to everyone who has tried to pigeon-hole him in that camp.”

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Gerdts added that Lund “is a proud, honorably discharged, military veteran” who has “interacted respectfully with all of the investigators, jailors and court personnel during the pendency of this case.”

Assistant U.S. District Attorney Benjamin Bejar asked U.S. District Judge Michael Davis to hand down the maximum sentence.

“Despite the defendant’s objection to the (presentence report) reference of him as an American National Assembly member endorsing sovereign citizen ideology, the evidence gathered in this case and the defendant’s own words underscore the defendant’s belief and reliance on such ideology,” Bejar wrote in the prosecution’s sentencing memo.

Lund will be on supervised release for two years following his 40-month prison term.

The St. Paul Saints have a new manager.

With Toby Gardenhire joining manager Derek Shelton’s staff as the Twins’ major league field coordinator, Brian Dinkelman was officially named St. Paul’s manager on Wednesday. Dinkelman is the second manager of the Saints since they became affiliated with the Twins in 2021.

Dinkelman, 42, has had a long journey in the Twins organization since being drafted by the team in 2006. He played in 23 major league games during the 11 seasons for the team.

This season will be his sixth as a manager in the organization’s minor league system and 12th overall. He holds a career 443-348 (.560) record as a minor league manager. Before becoming a manager, he worked as a hitting coach in the Twins’ system. He earned the promotion after managing the Double-A Wichita Wind Surge last season.

He will be joined on the Saints’ coaching staff by pitching coaches Carlos Hernandez and Ryan Ricci, hitting coach Shawn Schlecter — a Burnsville native — and hitting and development coach CJ Baker.

Twins make waiver claim

The Twins made a minor move on Wednesday, claiming utlityman Vidal Bruján off waivers from the Atlanta Braves and designating Mickey Gasper for assignment.

Bruján, 27, has played in parts of five major league seasons, debuting in 2021 with the Tampa Bay Rays before going on to play for the Miami Marlins, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves. He played in 60 games last year for three different teams, hitting .253 with a .616 OPS.

Atlanta Braves’ Vidal Brujan celebrates in the dugout after scoring off a single hit by Ronald Acuna Jr. during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

In his five seasons, he’s moved around the field, playing all three outfield positions, as well as second base, third base and shortstop.

Gasper, 30, spent last season up and down between Triple-A and the major leagues, though he did not hit much in limited opportunities with the Twins.

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A Minneapolis man has been charged with attempt to defraud Minnesota Medicaid programs of more than $3 million, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Wednesday.

Mohamed Abdirashid Omarxeyd, 57, is accused of using his business, Guardian Home Health Services, to bill for home care services that were never provided, according to charges filed Tuesday in Hennepin County by the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

The criminal complaint alleges Omarxeyd billed the state for personal care assistant services for clients who were in jail or the hospital.

In one case, Omarxeyd submitted claims reporting three hours of services for more than a month while a client was in the hospital, according to the complaint. Medicaid paid out more than $2,100 for services that could not be provided.

That type of billing was not an “isolated incident,” the attorney general’s office said in court documents. The complaint details several other similar incidents, including one where the company claimed reimbursement for a client who was in jail for a little more than a week in 2022.

The alleged fraud, which took place between 2020 and 2024, involved personal care assistant services, companion care services, homemaking services, respite care services, individualized home supports, and comprehensive community support services, the attorney general’s office said.

Former workers told investigators that they did not provide services to beneficiaries and worked with Omarxeyd to make claims anyway, according to the complaint. Through witnesses and financial records, investigators found that Omarxeyd and his company paid kickbacks to recipients of services.

In all, Omarxeyd, his wife and other companies he owned received a total of more than $2 million from Guardian Home Health Services of the $3 million fraudulently charged, the attorney general alleges.

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“Defrauding programs that provide healthcare to low-income Minnesotans is a truly despicable act,” Ellison said in a news release announcing the charges. “This action is the latest in our ongoing work to root out fraudsters and hold accountable those who steal from Medicaid.”

Court records did not list an attorney for Omarxeyd on Wednesday. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Feb. 3.