The NASA astronaut who was hospitalized for an evening after the splashdown of SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission has been launched and is doing nicely, in response to the company.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule “Endeavour” returned to Earth on Friday morning (Oct. 25) off the coast of Florida, bringing an finish to the 235-day Crew-8 mission to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS).
The touchdown went nicely, and all the things gave the impression to be regular. Nonetheless, shortly thereafter, NASA introduced that each one 4 Crew-8 astronauts — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Alexander Grebenkin of Russia’s area company Roscosmos — have been taken to Ascension Sacred Coronary heart Pensacola, a hospital in Florida, for analysis. This was completed “out of an abundance of warning,” company officers mentioned in a post-splashdown information convention.
Three of the 4 astronauts have been launched on Friday and flown to Johnson Area Heart (JSC) in Houston, the place NASA’s astronaut corps relies. Nonetheless, one crewmember — a NASA astronaut — stayed in a single day within the hospital “as a precautionary measure,” the company wrote in an replace on Friday.
Associated: Crew-8 astronauts splash down on SpaceX Dragon Endeavour after climate delays (video)
NASA gave us some excellent news in one other replace on Saturday (Oct. 26): The fourth astronaut was launched from the hospital that day and returned to JSC.
“The crew member is in good well being and can resume regular post-flight reconditioning with different crew members,” said the replace, which company officers mentioned (in an emailed assertion) can be the ultimate one on this matter.
NASA has not recognized the astronaut or the difficulty that led to the hospital keep, and it’ll not accomplish that sooner or later.
“To guard the crew member’s medical privateness, particular particulars on the person’s situation and identification won’t be shared,” company officers wrote in Saturday’s weblog put up.
Lengthy-duration spaceflight impacts the physique in a number of methods, from imaginative and prescient issues to decreases in bone density and muscle mass.
NASA and different area businesses find out about these results and work arduous to mitigate them. As an illustration, astronauts aboard the ISS spend a number of hours daily exercising to maintain their muscle groups and bones as sturdy as doable within the microgravity setting.
Crew-8 lasted longer than a typical ISS stint, which is about six months. However different astronauts have lived away from their dwelling planet for extra prolonged intervals. For instance, NASA’s Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin spent 371 days aboard the orbiting lab lately after their Soyuz spacecraft sprang a leak in orbit and so they needed to anticipate a brand new experience dwelling.
Russia’s Valeri Polyakov holds the all-time file for the longest steady area keep — 437 days, set aboard the Soviet-Russian Mir area station in 1994-95.
