NASA has shed some light on what triggered the unprecedented medical evacuation of four astronauts from the International Space Station last month.
On Wednesday the space agency identified longtime astronaut Mike Fincke, age 58, as having experienced the medical event that led to the decision to bring him and the other three members of NASA’s Crew-11 mission home weeks ahead of schedule.
“On Jan. 7, while aboard the International Space Station, I experienced a medical event that required immediate attention from my incredible crewmates,” Fincke said in a statement. “Thanks to their quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my status quickly stabilized.”
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Neither NASA nor Fincke has disclosed the exact nature of the medical issue, but the agency ordered the evacuation to allow for “advanced medical imaging not available on the space station,” Fincke said in the same statement.
“I’m doing very well and continuing standard post-flight reconditioning at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston,” Fincke said. “Spaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are.”
Crew-11—which also included NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov—undocked from the ISS on January 14 and splashed down to Earth on January 15. At a January 21 press conference, Fincke said that the medical incident occurred ahead of a planned space walk and that the space station’s onboard ultrasound machine “came in super handy.”
“We do try to make sure that everybody, before we fly, are really, really not prone to surprises. But sometimes things happen, and surprises happen,” Fincke said in the same press conference.