NASA Astronauts Refuse to Reveal Who Fell Ill After Nearly 8 Months in Space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—Three NASA astronauts whose extended space station mission concluded with a hospital visit last month opted not to disclose which one of them fell ill.
Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps publicly shared details of their spaceflight for the first time since returning from the International Space Station on Oct. 25. They spent nearly eight months in orbit, longer than originally planned due to issues with Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule and inclement weather, including Hurricane Milton.
Shortly after their SpaceX capsule landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast, all three, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin who launched with them in March, were taken to a hospital in nearby Pensacola.
One of the American astronauts ended up spending the night there due to an undisclosed “medical issue.” NASA refrained from revealing who was hospitalized or the reason, citing medical privacy.
During a news conference on Friday, when asked which astronaut had fallen ill, the astronauts declined to comment. Barratt, a space medicine specialist, also chose not to describe the symptoms experienced by the unidentified astronaut.
“Spaceflight is still something we don’t fully understand. We’re finding things that we don’t expect sometimes. This was one of those times and we’re still piecing things together on this,” Barratt, the only crew member with prior spaceflight experience, said.
Epps noted that each individual responds differently to space and gravity.
“That’s the part that you can’t predict,“ she remarked, adding, ”Every day is better than the day before.”
Dominick mentioned that simple tasks like sitting comfortably in a hard chair took several days to readjust to once back on Earth. He shared that he did not use the treadmill at all during his time in space, as part of an experiment to identify essential equipment for a long journey to Mars. The first time he walked post-return was when he exited the capsule.
The two astronauts who piloted Boeing’s Starliner—Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—will continue their stay at the space station until February and return with SpaceX. Starliner made an empty return in September.
By Marcia Dunn
