NASA astronaut in hospital after returning from a long stay in space

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

A SpaceX capsule with three Americans and one Russian on board was parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of Florida before dawn after undocking from the International Space Station midweek. The capsule was lifted onto the recovery ship, where the four astronauts underwent routine medical checks.

Shortly after landing, a NASA astronaut suffered 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 astronaut, who was not identified, was in stable condition and remained hospitalized 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 return home was hampered by problems with… Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsulewhich returned empty in September due to safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton intervened, followed by another two weeks of high winds 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 to participate in the mission, acknowledged the support teams back home who had to “replan, re-equip, re-do everything with us… and helped us roll with all the punches.”

Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission lasted from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. Those four will stay there until February.

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

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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.