Photo: GREGG NEWTON / AFP / Getty Images
Mike Fincke has confirmed that he was the NASA astronaut whose medical emergency cut short the Crew-11 mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), ending a five-and-a-half-month stay about a month earlier than planned.
In a statement released by NASA on Wednesday (February 25), Fincke said the incident happened on January 7. "On Jan. 7, while aboard the International Space Station, I experienced a medical event that required immediate attention from my incredible crewmates," he said. "Thanks to their quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my status quickly stabilized."
Fincke did not reveal the nature of his medical condition, citing the need for privacy. He said NASA decided the safest course of action was to bring the crew home early — not as an emergency, but as a carefully planned return — so that he could access "advanced medical imaging not available on the space station."
This marked the first time in history that NASA cut short an ISS staffing mission for health reasons. Fincke and his three crewmates — NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov — splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, on January 15.
Their sudden departure left just three astronauts aboard the ISS — a skeleton crew for the nearly football field-size orbiting lab. NASA quickly moved to fill the gap, accelerating the launch of its next crew mission.
Fincke had been preparing for his 10th spacewalk alongside Cardman on Friday (January 8) when the medical event occurred, forcing NASA to cancel the outing entirely.
At a January 21 news briefing, Fincke and his crewmates had declined to name who experienced the medical issue, but they made clear they did not view the return as an emergency. "How we handled everything all the way through, from nominal operations to this unforeseen operation, really bodes well for future exploration," Fincke said at the time.
In a social media post, Fincke offered an encouraging update on his recovery. "Now that the full range of terrestrial imaging and diagnostic evaluations — capabilities available only here on Earth — have been completed, I'm grateful to share that the results are very reassuring and that I'm firmly on the path to a complete recovery," he wrote.
Fincke, a veteran of three long-duration ISS missions and the next-to-last space shuttle flight in 2011, has spent 549 days in space and completed nine spacewalks. He is currently undergoing standard post-flight reconditioning at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
A four-person replacement crew, known as Crew-12, arrived at the ISS on February 14, restoring the station's complement to seven astronauts — the number NASA prefers to keep scientific research and daily operations on track.
"Spaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are," Fincke said in his Wednesday statement. "Thank you all for your support."