A NASA astronaut was flown to a hospital after returning to Earth with what the US space agency described as an unspecified medical condition.
Three NASA astronauts and a fourth from the Russian space agency spent almost eight months at the International Space Station after their homecoming had been stalled by problems with the Starliner capsule.
The crew splashed down off Florida’s coast at 7.29am on Friday aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
The astronaut, who NASA did not name for privacy reasons, is understood to be suffering from a medical issue, but the agency did not disclose what it is as of yet.
NASA initially said the entire crew was flown to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital out of precaution, but did not specify whether all or some of them had been experiencing issues.
The other three crew members have left the hospital and returned to Houston, the space agency said.
‘The one astronaut who remains at Ascension is in stable condition and is under observation as a precautionary measure,’ NASA said in a statement, referring to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital.
The agency said it will not share the nature of the astronaut’s condition.
SpaceX launched the four personnel – Nasa’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin – in March.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, posted on Telegram a photo of Grebenkin standing upright and smiling, with a caption reading: ‘After a space mission and splashdown, cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin feels great!’
Their 235 days in space made it much longer than the usual six-month ISS mission duration and marked the longest stay in orbit for SpaceX’s reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft.
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