Feb 26, 2026
3 min read
The NASA pilot says he was the one who suffered medical problems that led to the cancellation of the Crew-11 mission.
American Mike Finke was a sick astronaut who performed the first medical evacuation in space.
The NASA pilot said it was his health problems that forced him to cancel the Crew-11 mission.
The American astronaut Mike Fink was the first astronaut to be evacuated from space for medical reasons, he said in a statement released by the US space agency.
NASA is sharing the following information at the request of NASA astronaut Mike Fincke: pic.twitter.com/J3UsExd94H
— NASA (@NASA) February 25, 2026
"On January 7, while aboard the International Space Station, I experienced a medical incident that required the immediate attention of my incredible teammates. Thanks to their quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my condition quickly stabilized," reads the text posted by NASA on social network X.
The US space agency decided to return four members of the Mission-11 crew due to an unidentified medical emergency involving one of the crew members.The exact cause of the disease was not explained in detail.
"After further evaluation, NASA determined that the safest course of action was the return of the 11 crew members, not an emergency, but a carefully coordinated plan to take advantage of the advanced medical imaging available on the space station. On January 15, we landed on the shores of San Diego after an incredible five-and-a-half-year, five-and-a-half-year mission for America."
"I am very grateful to my Expedition 74 partners - Zena Cardman, Kimia Yu, Oleg Platonov, Chris Williams, Sergey Kuda-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikheyev, as well as the entire NASA team, SpaceX and the medical staff at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla near San Diego," he added.I will continue with the standard post-flight review at the center. Spaceflight is an incredible privilege and sometimes a reminder of who we are. Thank you so much for your support.”
The crew spent more than five months in space, including 165 days in the orbiter, traveled nearly 71 million miles and completed more than 2,670 orbits around Earth.While living and working on the station, the crew conducted hundreds of scientific experiments and technical demonstrations.
Before the end of their scheduled mission in March, NASA decided to return the entire crew after announcing that one of them had suffered a chronic medical problem.It was not an "urgency" but a "disturbance" due to a "difficult" problem, explained private astronaut and billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has been confirmed as the new director of NASA.
Crew-11's return from the International Space Station occurred without incident on January 14.The Dragon's four crew members landed in the Pacific Ocean, were towed to a ship, and exited the ship in good health.
The space agency is very jealous of the privacy of its astronauts, especially when it comes to medical problems, like in 2024 and 2020, when a crew member had to be treated in space for a blood clot in his neck.All four were taken to the hospital, so it was not possible to identify the victim.
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