{"id":507099,"date":"2026-02-27T07:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507099\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:50:09","slug":"crew-11-nasa-astronaut-behind-mission-ending-medical-issues-identifies-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507099\/","title":{"rendered":"Crew-11 NASA astronaut behind mission-ending medical issues identifies himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spaceflight veteran Mike Fincke has identified himself as the astronaut whose illness prompted NASA’s first medical evacuation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a written statement, the 58-year-old crew member revealed he had been the ailing astronaut aboard the International Space Station last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is what we know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/p>\n

NASA astronaut Edward “Mike” Fincke piloted the SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station on August 1, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While aboard the space station, he served as an Expedition 73\/74 flight engineer and commander.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mission was due to end in February.<\/p>\n

During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew conducted new research to “prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth,” SpaceX said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the mission came to an end a month early after Mr Fincke experienced a medical event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It forced the cancellation of a planned spacewalk by Mr Fincke and another astronaut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On January 8, NASA announced the early end of the mission due to a medical event and Crew-11 returned to Earth on January 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Crew-11 space capsule splashed down on January 15. (Supplied: SpaceX)<\/p>\n

At the time, the space agency did not reveal who had been ill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, Mr Fincke revealed it had been him.<\/p>\n

What was Mike Fincke’s illness?<\/p>\n

The astronaut did not actually reveal what he had been suffering from.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NASA boss blasts Boeing and space agency for botched Starliner flight <\/a><\/p>\n

A bungled Boeing mission that left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station for nine months has been criticised by NASA’s new boss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He described it as “a medical event that required immediate attention”.<\/p>\n

Mr Fincke said at an earlier news conference before revealing it was he who had been sick, that the space station’s ultrasound machine came in handy during the medical crisis.<\/p>\n

He elaborated on Wednesday, stressing that his situation was not an emergency but that everyone wanted “to take advantage of advanced medical imaging not available on the space station”.<\/p>\n

He said after receiving attention from surgeons at hospital, he was now doing well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSpaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Has NASA carried out a mission like this before?<\/p>\n

NASA has never had to medically evacuate an astronaut from the International Space Station.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The station is equipped to deal with certain medical emergencies and all astronauts have medical training.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each crew also has a crew medical officer, which can sometimes be a doctor or someone with advanced training.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are in regular contact with doctors on the ground, and NASA has a robust pharmacy and a suite of medical equipment onboard the space station to treat various conditions and injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Astronauts undergo rigorous screening before selection for missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 2015 study<\/a> published in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology journal found that medication use on the space station was quite low, with about 10 doses of non-prescription medication taken per astronaut per week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But space travel does take a toll on the body with astronauts commonly experiencing skin irritation, congestion, headaches and musculoskeletal injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spaceflight veteran Mike Fincke has identified himself as the astronaut whose illness prompted NASA’s first medical evacuation.\u00a0 In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[44827,64,63,254553,8523,24337,131,128,285,49240],"class_list":["post-507099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astronaut","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-federation-of-american-societies-for-experimental-biology-journal","tag-international-space-station","tag-mike-fincke","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spaceflight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}