NASA astronaut hospitalized after returning from space station

The astronaut, who NASA did not name for privacy reasons, splashed down off the coast of Florida at 3:29 a.m. ET Friday aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule along with three other crew members; two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut.

The crew included American astronauts Matthew Dominic, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. Their 235 days in space exceeded the usual six-month duration of a mission to the ISS and marked the longest stay in orbit for SpaceX’s reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft.

NASA initially said the entire crew was taken to a medical center for further evaluation and out of an abundance of caution, but did not specify whether all or part of the crew was experiencing problems.

NASA later said one of the astronauts had suffered health problems and that the crew was taken to a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, near the splashdown site. Three other crew members have since left the hospital and returned to Houston, the space agency said.

“The one astronaut who remains on Ascension is in stable condition under observation as a precaution,” NASA said in a statement, referring to Pensacola’s Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital. The agency said it did not disclose the nature of the astronaut’s condition.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos posted on the social network Telegram a photo of Grebenkin standing upright and smiling, with the caption: “After the space flight and splashdown, cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin feels great!”

This March 7, 2011 NASA handout photo shows a close-up of the International Space Station. This photo was taken by a member of the STS-133 crew on the Space Shuttle Discovery after the station and shuttle began operations. -undocking of relative separation. (AFP/NASA)

The crew’s return from the football-field-sized science lab 250 miles in orbit was delayed several weeks by two hurricanes that tore through the southeastern United States near Crew Dragon’s expected splashdown zones.

SpaceX has a fleet of reusable spacecraft and has flown 44 flights to the ISS. The company, owned by Elon Musk, remains the only option in the United States for NASA astronauts traveling to and from the ISS. Boeing’s Starliner, intended as a second flight to the United States, has been hampered by years of development problems.

Crew Dragon undocked safely from the ISS Wednesday afternoon and returned to Earth’s atmosphere early Friday morning, deploying its parachutes before plunging into the Gulf of Mexico.

At a post-landing briefing, a NASA spokesman said “the crew is doing great” and did not mention any problems with the astronauts. He noted two problems with the deployment of the Crew Dragon’s parachute.

Richard Jones, deputy manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said Crew Dragon’s initial set of drogue parachutes suffered some “debris impacts” and that one of the four parachutes in the subsequent set took longer than expected to deploy.

Neither event affected the crew’s safety, Jones said, calling the splashdown weather “ideal” for the crew’s recovery.

The reusable crewed Crew Dragon spacecraft has made its fifth flight, having spent 702 days in orbit since its first flight, SpaceX Vice President of Flight Reliability William Gerstenmaier, a former senior NASA official, told reporters during a news conference.