A NASA astronaut was admitted to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month stay at the space station, which was extended due to difficulties with Boeing’s capsule and Hurricane Milton, the space agency reported on Friday.
A SpaceX capsule with three Americans and one Russian landed in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida before dawn after leaving the International Space Station earlier in the week. The capsule was brought onto the recovery ship, where the four astronauts had regular medical checks, reports AP.
Soon after splashdown, a NASA astronaut had a “medical issue” and the crew was flown to a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, for additional evaluation “out of an abundance of caution” the space agency said in a statement.
The astronaut, who was not identified, was in stable condition and remained at the hospital as a “precautionary measure,” NASA said.
The space agency said it would not share details about the astronaut’s condition, citing patient privacy.
The other three astronauts were discharged and returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
It can take days or even weeks for astronauts to readjust to gravity after living in weightlessness for several months.
The astronauts were supposed to return two months ago, but their homecoming was delayed due to issues with Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, which returned empty in September because of safety worries. After that, Hurricane Milton caused more delays, along with another two weeks of strong winds and rough seas.
SpaceX launched the four — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin — in March. Barratt, the only space veteran going into the mission, acknowledged the support teams back home that had “to replan, retool and kind of redo everything right along with us ... and helped us to roll with all those punches.”
Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission went from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. Those four will remain up there until February.
The space station is now back to its usual crew size of seven, consisting of four Americans and three Russians, after several months of having extra crew members.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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