Veteran astronaut Mike Fincke broke his silence Wednesday, revealing that he was the crew member whose health emergency led to NASA’s unprecedented medical evacuation from the International Space Station last month.
The 58-year-old space veteran disclosed his identity in a written statement, though he declined to specify the nature of his medical issue. Fincke explained that his condition improved rapidly with assistance from his fellow crew members and medical professionals monitoring from Earth.
The astronaut reported that he has fully recovered from the incident.
“Spaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are,” Fincke stated.
Fincke had traveled to the space station with three other astronauts aboard a SpaceX mission launched last summer. Their assignment was cut short on January 15, just one week after Fincke suffered what he described as a “medical event that required immediate attention” from his colleagues. The health scare also led to the scrapping of a scheduled spacewalk involving Fincke and another NASA crew member.
After their capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean, all four astronauts were transported to a medical facility in San Diego. The crew returned to Houston the following day.
During a press briefing one week after their return, while the affected astronaut’s name remained undisclosed, Fincke mentioned that the space station’s ultrasound equipment proved valuable during the medical situation.
In his Wednesday statement, Fincke provided additional context, emphasizing that while the situation wasn’t classified as an emergency, the team decided “to take advantage of advanced medical imaging not available on the space station.”
A former Air Force colonel who joined NASA’s astronaut program in 1996, Fincke has accumulated 549 days in orbit across four space missions.
