Due to the mysterious incident with Michael Fincke in orbit, NASA had to conduct the first medical evacuation of a crew in the history of the ISS.
NASA astronaut Michael Fincke, who prompted NASA to conduct the first-ever crew evacuation from the International Space Station (ISS) due to health issues of one of the mission participants, reported that doctors do not know why he became ill in space, writes Focus.
On January 15, four members of the ISS crew from the Crew-11 mission returned to Earth a month earlier than scheduled. NASA decided to interrupt the mission and bring the astronauts back to Earth due to the sudden deterioration of health of 59-year-old astronaut Michael Fincke. It has now been revealed what happened to him. Fincke himself spoke about this during a press conference.
On January 7, Fincke was preparing for a spacewalk scheduled for January 8, but suddenly realized that he could not speak.
"It happened completely unexpectedly. Just incredibly quickly," said the NASA astronaut, who has been to space four times and spent a total of 549 days there.
Fincke reported that he felt no pain; he simply became ill in a matter of seconds and lost the ability to speak for about 20 minutes. Other crew members immediately contacted doctors on Earth, and NASA canceled the spacewalk, later deciding on an emergency evacuation of the Crew-11 mission participants from the ISS.
According to Fincke, he was able to speak after about 20 minutes and felt well afterward. Doctors ruled out a heart attack, but despite the fact that the astronaut feels fine now, doctors still do not know what happened to him. It is possible that this was how his body reacted to prolonged exposure to weightlessness. Prior to this incident, Fincke had already been on the ISS for 5.5 months.
Fincke stated that he cannot provide any additional details about his medical incident for privacy reasons, according to NASA protocols. Still, he mentioned that his colleagues in orbit used the ultrasound device available on the ISS to check his health. Fincke has also undergone many examinations on Earth, but the cause of his sudden loss of speech is still being investigated.
The NASA astronaut is still upset that his illness led to the cancellation of the spacewalk and the early return of the Crew-11 mission members to Earth. This would have been Fincke's milestone, tenth spacewalk, and he still hopes to return to orbit again.
