NASA astronaut’s sudden inability to talk that led to space station evacuation remains a mystery

The astronaut who was inexplicably left unable to talk during an International Space Station mission and whose medical episode prompted an unusual evacuation back to Earth said this past week that doctors still don’t know what happened.

In multiple interviews on March 28, Mr Michael Fincke identified himself as the astronaut who had the medical emergency in January.

It was not clear how long he was unable to speak or when he regained his ability to talk. NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on March 28.

Mr Fincke of NASA arrived at the International Space Station in August in one of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules along with Ms Zena Cardman, also of NASA; Mr Kimiya Yui of JAXA, the Japanese space agency; and Mr Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

The team, known as Crew-11, spent 167 days in space.

When the evacuation was announced, NASA officials said the affected astronaut was stable and did not require an immediate emergency return. Limited medical equipment aboard the space station prompted the return, officials said.

Their mission was originally scheduled to conclude in February after Crew-12, the next group of four astronauts, was to arrive. Instead, the astronauts of Crew-11 returned early, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Jan 15.

In the 25-year history of the space station, it was the first time that astronauts returned early because of a medical issue.

All four astronauts were taken to a hospital for medical evaluation, in part to protect the privacy of the astronaut requiring medical attention, officials said.

Mr Fincke said he was eating dinner Jan 7 when he suddenly couldn’t talk, he told The Associated Press.

“It was completely out of the blue,” he told The AP. “It was just amazingly quick.”

He said he had no pain but his crewmates realised something was wrong and jumped into action.

“The doctors are still scratching their heads,” Mr Fincke told NBC News. Testing ruled out a heart attack or stroke, he said. “We’re almost 100 per cent sure that this is a space-related thing.”

Mr Fincke has logged 549 days in space, according to his personal profile on the NASA website.

It was disappointing to cut the mission short, he said. NASA officials have jokingly told him he isn’t allowed to apologise anymore, he said.

“We weren’t quite ready,” Mr Fincke told CBS News. “We still had another month in us. I’ve felt for a long time that I let my friends down.” NYTIMES