New Delhi, March 30 -- Veteran NASA astronaut Mike Fincke has revealed new details about a mysterious medical episode that prompted the agency's first in-space evacuation earlier this year.

The incident occurred on January 7 aboard the International Space Station (ISS), when Fincke suddenly fell ill while preparing for a scheduled spacewalk.

"It was completely out of the blue. It was just amazingly quick," Fincke said in an interview from Houston's Johnson Space Center.

Fincke described how the situation escalated within seconds, with his crewmates immediately recognising distress.

"My crewmates definitely saw that I was in distress," he said. "It was all hands on deck within just a matter of seconds."

He recalled being unable to spe...