Last night, the story started showing up that one of the four Crew-8 astronauts who returned to Earth Friday before dawn was hospitalized. The news didn't say which of the four crew members it was or why that person was hospitalized while the other three returned to Houston. Everything mentioned was rather generic.
In an Oct. 25 statement, NASA said the unidentified astronaut “experienced a medical issue” after the Crew Dragon splashdown in the early morning hours off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The astronaut “is in stable condition under observation as a precautionary measure” at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital.
All four Crew-8 crewmembers were transported to the hospital for additional medical checks after undergoing routine post-flight medical examinations on the SpaceX recovery ship. “During routine medical assessments on the recovery ship, the additional evaluation of the crew members was requested out of an abundance of caution,” NASA stated.
Crew-8 consisted of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. SpaceNews reported all four seemed to be in good condition when exiting the Crew Dragon spacecraft on the SpaceX recovery ship. A little more than half an hour after splashing down, the four could be seen smiling and waving at the camera.
Apparently soon after that, one crew member started showing signs of some sort of medical problem and the four were taken to that hospital near Pensacola in the westernmost Florida panhandle. The landing zone itself is offshore the Pensacola area.
This afternoon we got the news that the crew member has been released from the hospital.
In a statement, NASA said the astronaut, whose identify has not been disclosed, was released from Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital after an overnight stay. “The crew member is in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members,” the agency said.
It's generally being reported that some transient medical conditions aren't
unusual after spending a long time in space. That's part of the reason for the "normal post-flight reconditioning" NASA talks about. Crew-8 was the longest of the
numbered Crew missions at 235 days due to the delays induced by Starliner
which had them wait for the Crew-9 mission to arrive at the station.
Return to Earth was further delayed by weather systems in Gulf.
The Crew-8 Dragon capsule early Friday morning after splashdown off Pensacola. Credit: SpaceX
Probably a little circulatory problem (low BP, or heart arrhythmia) due to Gravity being back. As noted, not too unusual. These people are in the peak of conditioning and bounce back quickly.
ReplyDeleteCirculatory problem is possible. So is funky inner-ear issues that, well, basically a super-duper case of motion sickness. It's like riding a rollercoaster 20-30 times while having stuffed up sinuses. You can feel fine for hours and then suddenly the world goes sideways and you have to stay still for hours while your body readjusts.
ReplyDeleteIt's a known but rarely talked about issue amongst long-duration space missions. And it's like space sickness, you never know who's going to be susceptible.
And long-duration sailing ship crews also used to and still do exhibit this. One of the known 'treatments' is to get blind-stinking drunk as soon as you get off the boat, as being blind-stinking drunk you don't feel the effects and you're gonna yack anyways and pass out and do a complete system reset.