NASA astronaut who had medical drawback in area breaks silence

The astronaut who skilled a medical subject in area final month has recognized himself because the sick member of his crew prompting an evacuation from the International Space Station.

Col. Mike Fincke, pilot of the four-member SpaceX Crew-11, mentioned in an announcement launched by way of NASA on Wednesday that he is “doing very well” and persevering with the usual rehabilitation all astronauts endure following their missions. 

While Fincke avoided disclosing his analysis, he mentioned the medical occasion that occurred on Jan. 7 — sooner or later earlier than he was scheduled to carry out a spacewalk — required instant consideration from his crewmates. 

“Thanks to their quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my status quickly stabilized,” he said. 

NASA’s choice to convey the crew residence one month early, on Jan. 15, marked the company’s first managed medical evacuation from the station in its 25 years of steady operations. The incident highlighted the boundaries of treating complicated well being issues 250 miles away from Earth. 

Their untimely departure left Chris Williams, who arrived on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in November 2025, as the one American astronaut on the station for a month till Crew-12 arrived on Feb. 14.

Fincke, 58, is a Pennsylvania native with a spouse and three kids. He joined NASA in 1996 and is now a veteran of 4 spaceflights: Expedition 9 in 2004, Expedition 18 in 2009, STS-134 in 2011, and most just lately Expedition 74, for which he served as commander. 

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke has logged 549 days in area, with 9 spacewalks totaling 48 hours and 37 minutes. 
Credit: SpaceX

He and three crewmates — Zena Cardman, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Russia’s Oleg Platonov — arrived on the area station on Aug. 1, 2025. He has logged 549 days in area, with 9 spacewalks totaling 48 hours and 37 minutes, based on NASA. 

Immediately after Fincke’s medical occasion, NASA officers mentioned they would not title the affected astronaut, citing medical privateness issues. During a information briefing the following day, NASA’s chief well being and medical officer J.D. Polk mentioned the incident wasn’t an damage in the midst of work, although he stopped in need of saying whether or not it was another form of damage. 

In Fincke’s Wednesday assertion, he described the evacuation as permitting him to get superior medical imaging that wasn’t out there on the station. He thanked the employees at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla close to San Diego, California, who checked him out upon the crew’s splashdown.

“Spaceflight is an incredible privilege,” he mentioned, “and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are.”

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Astronauts have dealt with many maladies over a quarter-century on the area station, however most, comparable to toothaches and earaches, aren’t lethal. Astronauts even have managed minor accidents and infections, again ache, movement illness, complications, and imaginative and prescient adjustments with telemedicine and the onboard medical equipment, based on public experiences. 

They’ve even handled a blood clot in the neck, treating it with injections of a blood-thinning drug and later oral drugs, as soon as it arrived on a cargo resupply ship.

NASA described the evacuation as a “controlled expedited return,” quite than an emergency deorbit, which might imply departing the station instantly, whatever the touchdown’s timing, sea situations, or climate.