The astronaut, who earlier this year led to NASA’s first medical evacuation, said this Friday, the 27th, that doctors still don’t know why he suddenly fell ill on the International Space Station.
Veteran of four space missions Mike Fincke said he was having dinner on January 7, after preparing for a spacewalk the next day, when everything happened. He was unable to speak and was not in pain, but his worried crewmates acted quickly when they saw him in distress and asked flight doctors on the ground for help.
“It was completely unexpected. It happened incredibly quickly,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Continues after advertising
Fincke, 59, a retired Air Force colonel, said the episode lasted about 20 minutes and that afterwards he felt fine – and continues to do so. He said he had never experienced anything like this before or since.
Doctors ruled out a heart attack, and Fincke said he was not choking, but all other possibilities are still being considered and could be related to his 549 days in weightlessness. He was five and a half months into his most recent space station mission when the problem came like “a very, very quick flash.”
“My crewmates clearly noticed that I was in trouble,” he said, with the six astronauts gathered around him. “Everyone sprung into action within a matter of seconds.”
Fincke said he could not provide further details about the medical episode. According to him, the space agency wants to ensure that other astronauts do not feel that their medical privacy will be compromised if something happens to them.
The space station’s ultrasound equipment came in handy when the incident occurred, he said, and since returning to Earth it has undergone several tests. NASA is analyzing medical records of other astronauts to see if there have been similar cases in space.
Fincke identified himself late last month as the astronaut who fell ill, ending public speculation.
Continues after advertising
He still feels bad that his illness caused the cancellation of the spacewalk – which would have been his tenth, but his colleague Zena Cardman’s first – and that it led to the early return of her and two other crew members. SpaceX brought them back on January 15, more than a month ahead of schedule, and they went straight to the hospital.
“I’ve always been very lucky to be extremely healthy. So this was very surprising to everyone,” he said.
Fincke said he stopped apologizing to everyone after NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, told him to stop. “That wasn’t your fault. That was the space, right?”, assured his colleagues. “You didn’t disappoint anyone.”
Continues after advertising
Always optimistic, he still hopes to return to space one day.
