Just minutes after splashdown, a NASA astronaut experienced a “medical issue,” 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 space agency said Friday that a NASA astronaut was hospitalized for an undisclosed medical issue following his return from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton.
A SpaceX capsule carrying three Americans and one Russian parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after mid-week undocking from the International Space Station.
The capsule was hoisted onto the recovery ship, where the four astronauts had routine medical checks.
Soon after the splashdown, a NASA astronaut had a “medical issue,” the crew was flown to a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, for further examination “out of an abundance of caution,” the space agency said in a statement.
NASA did not disclose the astronaut’s identity. The astronaut was said to be stable and remained at the hospital as a “precautionary measure,” the space agency said.
The space agency refused to give information on the astronaut’s condition, pleading for patient privacy.
The other three astronauts were released and returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
After months of weightlessness, astronauts may take several days or weeks to regain their condition.
The astronauts should have been back two months ago. However, their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which returned empty in September because of safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.
SpaceX launched the four—NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin—in March.
Barratt was the only space veteran going into the mission, and he acknowledged the support teams back home:
“They had to replan, retool, and kind of redo everything along with us … and helped us roll with all those punches.”
