NASA announced the retirement on Wednesday of Michael Fincke, an astronaut who spent a total of 549 days in space, making him the astronaut with the fourth most time there in the space agency’s history. He also became the first person to ever need an evacuation from the International Space Station, the result of a medical situation.
During his 30-year career with the agency, Mr. Fincke, 59, served as a commander, mission specialist and flight engineer on his four missions to the space station, in addition to chief handyman.
“Few people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA’s history as Mike Fincke,” NASA’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, said in a news release on Wednesday.
Mr. Fincke said he would “carry those lessons forward and help prepare the next generation of engineers, explorers and leaders.”
“NASA gave me the extraordinary privilege of serving alongside remarkable people, flying and helping develop spacecraft, and contributing to the International Space Station from its earliest days through command in orbit,” he said in a statement.
Starting in August 2025, Mr. Fincke served as pilot on NASA’s Crew‑11 mission to the space station, which launched in a SpaceX Dragon vehicle and returned to Earth in January.
That mission ended one month early because of a medical episode involving Mr. Fincke.
Five months into his stay, on Jan. 7, Mr. Fincke said he was eating dinner when he suddenly couldn’t talk. The episode lasted about 20 minutes, he said. Neither NASA nor Mr. Fincke has disclosed what caused the episode. But testing ruled out a heart attack or stroke, he said.
While Mr. Fincke’s condition was stable, NASA officials decided the safest course was to evacuate Mr. Fincke and his three crewmates back to Earth, leaving the space station with only three astronauts aboard rather than the typical complement of seven. It was the first time that astronauts were forced to return early because of a medical issue in the more than 25-year history of the space station.
Mr. Fincke is a native of Emsworth, Pa. He graduated from M.I.T. and also studied cosmonautics in the Soviet Union through an exchange program with the Moscow Aviation Institute. He earned master’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford, and in planetary geology from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
He is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, who accumulated more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 types of aircraft.
“Mike approached every assignment with experience, humility and an unwavering focus on the mission,” said Scott Tingle, chief of the astronaut office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He added, “His legacy is woven into the way we fly today.”
As an astronaut, Mr. Fincke has often been credited for his leadership
When a machine that is designed to recycle astronauts’ sweat, urine and wastewater into drinking water malfunctioned aboard the station in November 2008, the astronauts then led by Mr. Fincke as mission commander spent nearly 54 hours conducting spacewalks that focused on repairing it.
(It was known as the “coffee machine” because, as one astronaut put it, “it’s going to take yesterday’s coffee and make it into today’s coffee.”)
When the arduous and intricate work was finally complete, Commander Fincke called down to mission control.
“Well, not to spoil anything,” he said, “but I think up here we’re feeling the appropriate words are ‘yippee!’”
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