NASA’s Crew-8 astronauts decided to stay mum on the post-landing medical issue that took them to the hospital.
According to Space News, the three astronauts of the Crew-8 mission were admitted to the hospital after returning to Earth, and one stayed there overnight due to a medical emergency.
NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, returned to Earth on October 25, 2024, on a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
After their splashdown, NASA announced that the four astronauts were taken to a hospital in Florida after returning for additional medical evaluations “out of an abundance of caution.”
NASA did not disclose the details of the medical issue that the astronauts faced after landing even the three astronauts, during a press conference about their mission on November 8, 2024, declined to give details of the incident.
Barratt told the press, “Spaceflight is still something we don’t fully understand. We’re finding things we don’t expect sometimes, and this was one of those times. We’re still piecing things together on this, and so, to maintain medical privacy and to let our processes go forward in an orderly manner, this is all we’re going to say about that event at this time.”
While about questions regarding hospitalization, he said, “Space medicine is my passion. In the fullness of time, we will allow this to come out and be documented. For now, medical privacy is very important to us. We maintain that always in many things we do. The same with due process. Both of those negate our ability to talk about it today.”
Crew-8 astronauts came back to Earth after completing a 235-day mission in space and living nearly eight months in microgravity.
