Astronaut evacuated from International Space Station pays tribute to ‘incredible teammates’

There is no more mystery about which astronaut suffered a medical issue aboard the International Space Station last month, prompting NASA’s first-ever medical evacuation.

Astronaut Mike Fincke, 58, has identified himself as the one who was in need of help in a statement published by NASA on Wednesday.

“On Jan. 7, while aboard the International Space Station, I experienced a medical event that required immediate attention from my incredible teammates,” Fincke said in the statement.

Fincke said he’s “doing very well” and is still undergoing “post-flight reconditioning,” though he did not specify what health issue prompted the need for medical evacuation.

Fincke was part of the four-person SpaceX Crew-11 mission, alongside NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

Although officials at the time described the situation as stable, it was serious enough that the decision was made to cut the mission short so Fincke could undergo advanced diagnostics and treatment on Earth — resulting in NASA’s first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight.

That left only three crew members to keep the ISS running — one American and two Russians — prompting NASA to pause spacewalks and trim research until a new team launched earlier this month.

But NASA declined to disclose which of the four astronauts was sick, nor what the issue was, citing medical privacy.

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Fincke and his crew members had their mission shortened by about a month, down from what was supposed to be a trip lasting at least six months after launching in August.

Fincke told reporters in January, less than a week after the crew’s return to Earth, that the crew had used the onboard ultrasound machine once the medical problem arose on Jan. 7 — the day before a planned spacewalk that was abruptly cancelled.

The astronauts had already used the device a lot for routine checks of their body changes while living in weightlessness, “so when we had this emergency, the ultrasound machine came in super handy,” he said at the time.

It was so useful that Fincke said there should be one on all future spaceflights. “It really helped,” he said.

In the statement Wednesday, Fincke thanked his fellow crew members for “their professionalism and dedication,” as well as thanking health workers at a hospital near San Diego, where the crew splashed down on Jan. 15.

“Spaceflight is an incredible privilege and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are,” Fincke said.