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NASA said Saturday an astronaut hospitalized after returning from space the day before has been released and is in "good health." The agency did not provide any more details on the matter, citing medical privacy protections.
The astronaut was one of four crew members who returned from a 235-day mission in low-Earth orbit with a predawn splashdown Friday. The four-person crew splashed down inside SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft at 3:29 am EDT (07:29 UTC) in the Gulf of Mexico south of Pensacola, Florida.
Commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialist Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were inside SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft for reentry and splashdown. NASA said one of its astronauts "experienced a medical issue" after the splashdown, and all four crew members were flown to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola for medical evaluation.
Three of the crew members were released later Friday morning and departed Pensacola on a NASA business jet to fly back to Houston, according to NASA. The unidentified astronaut remained overnight at Ascension in "stable condition and under observation as a precautionary measure," a NASA spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
The astronaut was released Saturday in "good health" and returned to Houston, "where they will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members," NASA said. "To protect the crew member’s medical privacy, specific details on the individual’s condition and identity will not be shared."
This mission, named Crew-8, was SpaceX's eighth operational crew rotation flight to the space station under a multibillion-dollar commercial crew contract with NASA. This was the first flight to space for Dominick, Epps, and Grebenkin, and the third space mission for Barratt.
NASA extended their stay at the International Space Station earlier this year to accommodate schedule changes caused by the troubled test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, then to wait for better weather conditions in SpaceX's recovery zones near Florida.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, released a photo of Grebenkin standing in Pensacola a few hours after splashdown. "After the space mission and splashdown, cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin feels great!" Roscosmos posted on its Telegram channel.
Adapting to Earth
This is not the first time an astronaut has been hospitalized after returning to Earth, but it is uncommon. South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon was hospitalized for back pain after experiencing higher-than-expected g-forces during reentry in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2008.
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