The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a message on February 25, conveying a statement from Crew-11 mission astronaut Mike Fincke about his health in orbit. Mike Fink said that on January 7 this year, he suffered a medical emergency while on a mission to the International Space Station and needed immediate help from his colleagues on board. Under the quick treatment of the crew members and the remote guidance of NASA flight surgeons on the ground, his health condition was quickly stabilized.
After further evaluation, NASA believes that for safety reasons, it is necessary to implement an early return to Earth plan for "Crew-11". This arrangement was not an emergency evacuation, but was carefully coordinated for medical reasons so that Fink could receive advanced medical imaging examinations that were not available on the space station as quickly as possible.
On January 15, the SpaceX "Dragon Endeavor" manned spacecraft carrying the "Crew-11" crew successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, California, USA, marking the successful end of the approximately five-and-a-half-month space station mission. The spacecraft recovery work was undertaken by the SpaceX recovery ship "SHANNON", and Finck and other astronauts safely exited the spacecraft at sea.
In the statement, Fink expressed special thanks to his colleagues on the 74th Long-Term Expedition Crew and related agencies. He mentioned one by one the members of the crew and on-orbit cooperation, including Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui, Oleg Platonov, Chris Williams, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev. He also thanked the NASA team, SpaceX, and the medical team at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla near San Diego, saying their professionalism and dedication ensured a "positive outcome" from the incident.
Currently, Fink is undergoing routine post-flight recovery training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and is in good overall condition. He said that space flight is an "incredible privilege" and will sometimes remind people that "we are human after all." He finally thanked the public and supporters for their concern and support during this period.