The Artemis II moon mission is on its countdown, but NASA can’t solve the medical mystery after four-time veteran Mike Fincke suddenly lost the ability to speak in space.
Earlier this year, the International Space Station hosted the first-ever emergency medical evacuation, and which astronaut was at the heart of the crisis remained a mystery to medical experts.
Fincke recently shared details of the alarming incident. On January 7, while he was eating dinner and preparing for a spacewalk scheduled for the next morning, he was suddenly struck by an unexplained illness without showing any sign of pain.
According to Fincke, the episode came like “a quick bolt of lightning” and lasted about 20 minutes. As soon as this episode was over, he felt fine and had never experienced anything like it before or since.
“It was completely out of the blue. It just happened amazingly fast,” said Fincke, a retired Air Force colonel.
“My crew members clearly saw that I was in distress. Within seconds, all hands were on deck,” he added.
Doctors are still baffled by the nature of this medical emergency. According to medical experts, the sudden loss of speech could not have been the result of a heart attack, as Fincke was not choking at the time.
But they have linked the medical mystery to his 549 days of weightlessness when Fincke was 5.5 months into his last stay on the space station.
After Fincke’s emergency medical evacuation, he did not complete the planned spacewalk, which would have been his tenth and a first for crew member Zena Cardman.
On January 15, SpaceX returned astronauts to Earth more than a month ahead of schedule. They immediately underwent medical tests.
