ISS astronaut hospitalized after returning to Earth

Astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission including Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps along with Russian space agency Roscosmos astronaut Alexander Grebenkin landed in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola, Florida at 3:29 a.m. on October 25 local time (2:29 p.m. on September 25, Hanoi time) after more than two weeks of waiting for suitable conditions on the International Space Station (ISS), according to Space.

After the ship landed in the Gulf of Mexico, SpaceX boats, including the recovery ship “Megan”, quickly arrived at the Dragon Endeavor ship to take the capsule and crew out of the water.

On the afternoon of October 25, the astronauts received a health check at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, a hospital near the landing site on the Gulf of Mexico. One of the astronauts had to stay in the hospital for further monitoring while the rest flew back to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA does not provide information about crew members staying at the medical facility to protect individual privacy.

Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin launched to the ISS on March 3 and joined expedition teams 70, 71 and 72 on the station.

Initially scheduled to return to Earth on October 8 after completing a seven-month scientific mission aboard the ISS, Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin were ready to leave the ISS station almost daily while experts NASA and SpaceX flight controllers continue to monitor weather systems over the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico to avoid adverse sea conditions near the Dragon Endeavor’s landing site.

During their stay, they conducted hundreds of scientific experiments and twice attempted two spacewalks, but encountered equipment problems that doomed their efforts.

Crew-8 also saw visits from eight different vehicles, including Boeing’s Starliner on a Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin’s stay on the ISS station lasted another month after NASA decided Wilmore and Williams would stay at the ISS and the Starliner flew back to Earth without carrying astronauts.

Crew-8 marks the Dragon Endeavor’s fifth flight following the Demo-2, Crew-2, Axiom-1 and Crew-6 missions. With the Crew-8 mission, the Dragon Endeavor has traveled 160 million km and completed 3,776 times around the Earth.