American cosmonaut Michael Fink, because of whom NASA had to conduct the first medical evacuation from the ISS at the beginning of the year, said that doctors still do not know why he suddenly felt unwell.
In an interview with the Associated Press, he said that on January 7 he was having dinner after preparing for a spacewalk when it happened. He could not speak and did not remember that he was in pain, but his anxious comrades, seeing that he was in trouble, turned to the doctors on Earth for help.
"It was completely unexpected. Just incredibly fast," he said.
Fink said that the attack lasted about 20 minutes, after which he felt good. According to him, he still feels good. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before or since.
Doctors ruled out a heart attack, and Fink said he was not suffocating, but all other options are still being considered and may be related to his 549 days in zero gravity.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft with Crew Crew-11 docked with the ISS on August 2, 2025. Crew-11 crew commander Zena Cardman, pilot Edward Michael Fink, Japanese Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov were supposed to work aboard the space station until about February 20, 2026. Michael Fink was appointed commander of the 74th expedition of the ISS.
On January 8, 38-year-old Zena Cardman and 58-year-old Michael Fink planned to go outside the space station in order to prepare external equipment, power supply systems, for the arrival of a new set of retractable iROSA solar panels within 6.5 hours.
However, the exit was canceled — one of the crew members (his name was not called at the time) had "unspecified medical problems," as reported by NASA.A similar case of cancellation of the VCD (extravehicular activity) due to the health condition of an ISS crew member was only in 2021, when the astronaut was unable to go into outer space due to a pinched nerve in Mark Vande Hai.
At a press conference on January 9, NASA Chief Jared Isaacman announced the decision to evacuate the entire crew of Crew-11.