NASA reveals identity of astronaut who suffered medical incident aboard ISS

Fincke, Cardman, Yui and Platonov had been living and working aboard the International Space Station since early August and were originally scheduled to stay at the orbiting outpost until the end of February.

Instead, top NASA officials and the agency’s chief health and medical officer opted to return the astronauts to Earth a week after the incident.

“After further evaluation, NASA determined that the safest course was a rapid return of Crew 11 – not an emergency, but a carefully coordinated plan to be able to take advantage of advanced medical imaging not available on the space station,” Fincke said in the release.

The four Crew-11 astronauts left the space station on January 14, undocking from the ISS in the same SpaceX Dragon capsule that they flew to the space station. After a nearly 11-hour journey, the capsule crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego in the early morning hours of January 15.

In a post-landing press briefing, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said it was a “serious situation” in orbit, but added that the crew member in question had been safe and stable since then.

In his statement, Fincke thanked his Crew-11 colleagues, as well as NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, who were also aboard the space station at the time and are still in space. Fincke also thanked the teams at NASA, SpaceX and the medical professionals at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

“Their professionalism and dedication ensured a positive outcome,” he said.

Fincke ended his statement by saying he is “doing very well” and is still actively involved in standard post-flight reconditioning at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“Spaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us how human we are,” he said. “Thank you for all your support.”