{"id":42548,"date":"2026-08-13T06:16:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42548"},"modified":"2026-08-13T06:16:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:16:57","slug":"astronaut-mike-fincke-retires-from-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42548","title":{"rendered":"Astronaut Mike Fincke retires from NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2218040398-e1784749486218.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>Mike Fincke, the NASA astronaut with the fourth highest accumulated space time \u2014 at 549 days \u2014 has retired, the agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/nasa-astronaut-mike-fincke-leaves-nasa-career-includes-4-spaceflights\/\">announced<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Fincke flew four missions with the agency and embarked on over 48 hours of space walks, according to NASA. Months before his retirement, he also became the first astronaut in NASA\u2019s history to be <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/space\/5757028-nasa-astronaut-mike-fincke-medical-issue\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/space\/5757028-nasa-astronaut-mike-fincke-medical-issue\/\">medically evacuated<\/a> from the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cNASA 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,\u201d Fincke said in a statement announcing his retirement.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout his 30-year tenure with NASA, Fincke has served as commander, mission specialist and flight engineer.<\/p>\n<p>The astronaut recently piloted NASA\u2019s SpaceX Crew-11 mission, beginning in August 2025. The mission ended in January, a month early, after crew members were forced to evacuate the ISS due to Fincke facing a medical issue \u2014 though NASA originally kept the astronaut\u2019s identity anonymous.<\/p>\n<p>Fincke <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/space\/5757028-nasa-astronaut-mike-fincke-medical-issue\/\">identified himself<\/a> as the astronaut that sparked the evacuation in February, clarifying that the incident was not an emergency \u2014 rather, he said required advanced medical imaging not accessible on the ISS.<\/p>\n<p>He expanded on the evacuation in a March interview with the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nasa-sick-astronaut-medical-evacuation-cc34793ffb73174f18443f2dd9c6ff2f\">Associated Press<\/a>, saying he had temporarily lost his ability to speak for about 20 minutes. Fincke told <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/IEDr4hX_lBA?si=QRHvdUzxiFvzrCTw\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/IEDr4hX_lBA?si=QRHvdUzxiFvzrCTw\">NBC <\/a>that doctors later ruled out a heart attack or stroke<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe doctors are still scratching their heads,\u201d Fincke said to <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/IEDr4hX_lBA?si=QRHvdUzxiFvzrCTw\">NBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re almost 100 percent sure that this is a space-related thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The astronaut started at the agency in 1996, when he joined NASA\u2019s 16th astronaut class, and went on his first mission to space eight years later.<\/p>\n<p>Fincke is also a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. He served as a space systems engineer, flight test engineer and flight test liaison during his time in the Air Force <strong>\u2014 <\/strong>where he accumulated more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft types.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cFew people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA\u2019s history as Mike Fincke,\u201d NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in Wednesday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Fincke, the NASA astronaut with the fourth highest accumulated space time \u2014 at 549 days \u2014 has retired, the agency announced Wednesday. Fincke flew four missions with the agency and embarked on over 48 hours of space walks, according to NASA. Months before his retirement, he also became the first astronaut in NASA\u2019s history&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2218040398-e1784749486218.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}