NASA astronaut reveals what prompted space station evacuation
FILE - NASA astronaut Mike Fincke gives a thumbs up as he attends a welcome ceremony ahead of the SpaceX Crew-11 launch at the Kennedy Space Center on July 26, 2025 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Im
The astronaut at the center of NASA’s first medical evacuation that happened earlier this year is revealing more details about what happened.
Details from the space agency had remained sparse to protect medical privacy.
NASA astronauts evacuated from space station
The backstory:
January’s medical evacuation was NASA’s first in 65 years of human spaceflight. One of the four astronauts sent to the space station by SpaceX last summer suffered what officials described as a serious health issue, prompting the four of them to hastily return.
NASA didn’t say which one of them had fallen ill on Jan. 7 or give details about what happened, citing medical privacy.
But the NASA astronaut at the center of the evacuation spoke now with The Associated Press from Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
What they're saying:
Mike Fincke, 59, told the AP he was eating dinner on Jan. 7 after preparing for a spacewalk the next day when he went into distress.
He couldn't talk and remembers no pain. The medical episode lasted 20 minutes and he felt fine afterward – and said he still feels fine today.
"It was completely out of the blue. It was just amazingly quick," he said in the interview.
"My crewmates definitely saw that I was in distress," he said, and said that all six gathered around him. "It was all hands on deck within just a matter of seconds."
RELATED: 4 new astronauts reach ISS after NASA's first medical evacuation
Dig deeper:
Fincke is a retired Air Force colonel who has been to space four times.
He has gone through numerous tests since returning to earth, but doctors still don’t know what happened.
They’ve ruled out a heart attack and Fincke said he wasn't choking, but everything else is still on the table and could be related to his several hundred days of weightlessness.
By the numbers:
Fincke became an astronaut in 1996 and has logged 549 days in space over four missions, according to The Associated Press.
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Meanwhile:
The International Space Station welcomed four new astronauts last month. Spacewalks and other research had been paused in their absence.
The Source: Information in this story was taken from remarks given by Fincke to The Associated Press. Background information was taken from NASA and previous FOX Television Station reportings. This story was reported from Detroit.