NASA astronaut remains in the hospital after returning from an extended stay in space

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA astronaut was taken to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing's capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton, the space agency said Friday.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2024 (708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA astronaut was taken to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton, the space agency said Friday.

A SpaceX capsule carrying three Americans and one Russian parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week. The capsule was hoisted onto the recovery ship where the four astronauts had routine medical checks.

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 SpaceX crew of the Dragon spacecraft, from left, cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, pilot Michael Barratt, commander Matthew Dominick and mission specialist Jeanette Epps gather for a photo after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
The SpaceX crew of the Dragon spacecraft, from left, cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, pilot Michael Barratt, commander Matthew Dominick and mission specialist Jeanette Epps gather for a photo after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

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 should have been back two months ago. But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back 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 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.

This photo provided by NASA shows a member of the support team as they work around the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)
This photo provided by NASA shows a member of the support team as they work around the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (NASA/Joel Kowsky via AP)

The space station is now back to its normal crew size of seven — four Americans and three Russians — after months of overflow.

___

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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