NASA astronauts hospitalized after splashdown in rare incident

All four Crew-8 astronauts were medically evaluated at a Florida hospital after returning from space aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, while one astronaut was forced to stay overnight due to an unspecified medical problem.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission splashed down at 3:29 a.m. ET Friday off Pensacola, Florida, after nearly eight months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The crew returned to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which “performed a normal entry and splashdown,” according to the report. NASA. However, instead of going to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the four-member crew were flown together to Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola in Florida for medical tests.

“The crew left the Dragon spacecraft on a recovery ship for routine post-flight medical evaluation,” NASA wrote in a blog post. update. “Out of an abundance of caution, all crew members were transported to the facility together.” Three crew members left the hospital, and one unnamed astronaut stayed overnight, presumably due to health problems. To protect privacy, NASA is not disclosing the astronaut’s identity or condition.

Hospital officials released the astronaut the next day, allowing him to return to Johnson Space Center to resume regular post-flight recovery with other crew members. NASA confirmed that the astronaut was “in good health.” It is still unclear whether the medical problem was caused by their time in orbit or the return to Earth, or perhaps something unrelated to their time in space. However, the fact that all four crew members were taken to hospital for further medical examination seems to suggest that the medical problem was somehow related to the return to Earth.

Crew-8 included NASA astronauts Matthew Dominic, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. According to the data, the four astronauts spent a total of 232 days aboard the ISS, traveling nearly 100 million miles and orbiting the Earth 3,760 times while conducting scientific research. NASA.

NASA’s Crew 8 launched to the ISS on March 4, but their return to Earth was delayed several weeks by Hurricane Milton, forcing the space agency to abandon the October 7 undocking attempt. The crew was originally scheduled to return in mid-August, but NASA extended the mission to keep the Dragon spacecraft docked at the ISS for stranded Starliner astronauts in case of an emergency.

Boeing’s spacecraft launched astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in June, but empty Starliner returned to Earth in Septemberabandoning its crew after it was deemed unfit to return astronauts to Earth. In the event of an emergency on the ISS, two astronauts will need an extra room on the Dragon spacecraft to shelter in place.

Due to the delay in the return of the crew, the astronauts spent almost eight months in space instead of the original mission duration of six months. Space is a harsh environment that has a negative impact on the human body, affecting bone and muscle density, vision and even causing Astronauts will become more susceptible to infections on board the ISS. Clearly, much more research needs to be done on astronaut health and ways to mitigate the harmful effects of space on the human body before astronauts make the long journey to Mars.