After more than a month of mystery and at the request of the interested party himself, the POT has revealed the identity of the mission member Crew-11 which starred the first medical evacuation in the history of the International Space Station (ISS, for its acronym in English). This is the NASA astronaut Mike Finckepilot of Crew-11 and commander of ISS Expedition 74.
‘I suffered a medical episode that required immediate attention from my amazing crewmates. Thanks to your quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my condition stabilized quickly‘ says Fincke in a statement published today by NASA. What neither the affected person nor the space agency explains is what the medical problem consisted of that forced the return of the Crew-11 crew to be brought forward by a month.
However, there are some additional details. The statement indicates that The problem was not considered an emergency, but required ‘advanced medical imaging tests not available on the space station’. The other members of Crew-11 who returned with Fincke on the ship Crew Dragon They were the NASA astronaut Zena Cardmanthat of the Japanese space agency Kimiya Yui and the cosmonaut Roscosmos Oleg Platonov.
NASA is sharing the following information at the request of NASA astronaut Mike Fincke: pic.twitter.com/J3UsExd94H
— NASA (@NASA) February 25, 2026
Fincke’s medical problem began on January 7, while Fincke and Cardman were preparing for a space walk that was suspended. ‘The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose on Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex,’ NASA officials said at the time without specifying the nature of the problem or the person affected. The next day, the agency announced the immediate return of Crew-11.
eight days laterOn January 15, Crew Dragon landed off the coast of San Diego, after leaving the ISS with a crew of only three peoplea situation not unprecedented but unusual. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and the cosmonauts of Roscosmos Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikayev They were in charge of carrying out research tasks and maintaining the orbital laboratory while NASA worked to advance the launch of the Crew-12 mission.
This was originally planned for February 15. Finally, SpaceX and NASA launched the Falcon 9 rocket with the ship Crew Dragon ‘Freedom’which returned to the ISS its usual complement of seven crew members, the February 13.
After splashdown, the astronauts were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, near San Diego, whose medical staff Fincke has thanked for their work. ‘Their professionalism and dedication guaranteed a positive result’he states.
Fincke explains that he is fine and continues routine post-flight conditioning at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. ‘Spaceflight is an incredible privilege and sometimes reminds us how human we are’he concludes.