NASA’s Crew 11 astronauts were about to enter the final month of their mission aboard the International Space Station when a member of their crew suddenly fell ill. The January incident led to NASA’s first evacuation from the ISS, and while the agency remained silent, a concerned member is now sharing his story.
Crew 11 pilot Mike Fincke said he was the astronaut who fell ill in February but did not elaborate on what happened to him. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, he revealed that he suddenly lost the ability to speak while eating dinner on January 7.
“It was a no-brainer,” Fincke told the AP. “It was incredibly quick.”
He had spent the day preparing for a spacewalk—a procedure he had done nine times on previous ISS missions. Fincke said he doesn’t remember feeling any pain, but his co-workers were quick to act when they saw his distress.
First emergency
Fincke said he could not speak for about 20 minutes. Faced with an unusual emergency, the other members of Crew-11—commander Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov—urgently sought guidance from the flight surgeons on the ground.
“It was hands on floor for seconds,” he told the AP.
ISS has a well-stocked pharmacy and medical equipment to periodically check the health of the crew, perform self-diagnosis, and treat certain illnesses and injuries. Fincke said the spacecraft’s ultrasound machine worked well during the incident, but did not elaborate on the emergency care he received in orbit.
Eventually, NASA postponed the space flight and decided that Fincke needed to return to Earth to receive the care he needed. It was the first medical evacuation order in the ISS’s 25 years of operation.
The astronauts of Crew 11 crashed off the coast of California on January 15, 35 days before the scheduled end of their mission. The departure of the team left only three scientists aboard the ISS, which is the minimum required to keep the space station operational.
Fincke said he has undergone many tests since returning to Earth, and the AP reports that NASA is using the astronauts’ medical records to look for similar incidents. Fincke said he felt alive after the incident and had never experienced anything like it before or since.
He told NBC: “Doctors are scratching their heads. “The good news is that we have a lot of positive data that shows there was nothing wrong. I didn’t have a stroke. I didn’t have a heart attack.”
He added: “We are 100% sure that this is something related to space.
Human aviation accidents
Spending months on the ISS is not easy on the body. Astronauts must endure prolonged exposure to microgravity, space radiation, and isolation during their careers. Keeping them healthy is a science and engineering task.
Microgravity is a common driver of many conditions in life associated with spaceflight, including muscle weakness, bone loss and fluid changes. Although there is no evidence directly related to microgravity and the sudden loss of speech (also known as aphasia), the AP reports that Fincke’s condition may be related to the 549 days he spent in weightlessness during his flight career.
It will take more research to find out exactly what happened to Fincke and what may have happened to other magicians. For now, he told NBC that he is now “doing well” and thanks his colleagues and the entire NASA team. 11th Staff Commander Cardman, who spoke to NBC alongside Fincke, said the incident was a learning opportunity.
“We did as well as we could,” Cardman said. “I think this was a very good exercise, and we’ll be able to use these lessons as we move forward.”
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