Three American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut have been taken to a medical facility after returning to Earth from an almost eight-month mission on the Worldwide Area Station.
NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin “were taken to a local medical facility for additional evaluation,” NASA stated in a press release.
It got here after they splashed down in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 3.29am native time on Friday (8.29am UK time) off Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The house company stated the crew had their normal medical evaluations upon exiting the craft, however added that “out of an abundance of caution, all crew members were flown to the facility together”.
NASA, which is often tight-lipped on medical points involving astronauts, declined to say what prompted the abundance of warning or describe the crew’s situation.
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That is the second the crew within the SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico
Russia’s house company has not responded to a request for touch upon Mr Grebenkin’s situation.
SpaceX has a fleet of reusable spacecraft and has flown to the ISS 44 occasions.
Extra on Worldwide Area Station
The Elon Musk-owned firm stays the one US choice for NASA astronaut journeys to and from the house station. Boeing’s Starliner, supposed as a second US journey, has been hindered by years of improvement points.
The crew ought to have been again on Earth two months in the past however their homecoming was stalled by issues with the Starliner astronaut capsule, which returned empty in September due to security issues.
Picture:
Assist groups with the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed within the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. Pic: NASA by way of AP
Hurricane Milton then interfered, adopted by an additional two weeks of excessive wind and tough seas.
Marking 235 days in house, the Crew-8 astronauts’ keep aboard the ISS, a soccer field-sized science lab 250 miles in orbit, was longer than the standard six-month astronaut missions on the station.
It additionally marked the longest mission to date for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft since its introduction in 2020.
Richard Jones, deputy supervisor of NASA’s Industrial Crew Programme, stated Crew Dragon’s preliminary set of braking parachutes suffered some “debris strikes” and that one in all 4 parachutes in a subsequent set took longer than anticipated to unfurl.
Neither occasion affected crew security, Mr Jones stated, calling the splashdown climate “ideal” for the crew’s restoration.
