8 months in space ended in hospital. Where can we go to Mars?
One American astronaut spent 235 days in space. Now, after the SpaceX capsule returned from the International Space Station, he was immediately hospitalized.
235 days in space and an undisclosed medical problem
The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying three American and one Russian astronaut from the International Space Station (ISS) recently landed in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida. Shortly after landing in the water, when NASA personnel picked them up and transported them to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola Hospital where they underwent routine medical tests. Then it turned out that one of the American astronauts required hospitalization.
The crew included Commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, specialist Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
NASA maintains that the hospitalized astronaut’s condition is stable and the decision to keep him in the hospital was merely a precaution. The agency did not disclose further details about the astronaut’s condition, citing a patient’s right to privacy.
It is worth emphasizing that the 235-day stay of the astronauts on the ISS was extended by two months due to problems with the Boeing Starliner capsule, as well as the hurricane Milton raging in Florida. Such a prolonged stay in space could have a negative impact on the human body.
Situations like this don’t happen very often, but they have happened in the past. For example, in 2008, astronaut Yi So-yeon suffered severe spinal stress due to stronger-than-expected gravitational forces during re-entry to Earth orbit in a Russian Soyuz. In 1975, astronauts on the Apollo-Soyuz test mission suffered pneumonia after inhaling toxic fumes from the Apollo engines just before the spacecraft landed on the water.
