The astronauts who came home from the International Space Station last month experienced some drama on the high frontier, and some of it accompanied them back to Earth.
The three NASA astronauts on the Dragon spacecraft included commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, and mission specialist Jeanette Epps.
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin accompanied the three NASA crew members.
Dominick, Barratt, and Epps answered media questions in a post-flight press conference Friday, but they did not offer more information on the medical issue or say who experienced it.
Maybe some day Barratt said NASA will release more information about the astronaut’s post-flight medical issue “in the fullness of time.”
Some drama was experienced on the high frontier by the astronauts returning to Earth from the ISS last month, and some of that drama followed them home.
Two of the astronauts’ spacewalks were canceled while in orbit, both due to unforeseen circumstances. Following the 235-day mission’s splashdown aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, one of the astronauts was hospitalized on October 25 for what NASA described as an unidentified “medical issue.”. NASA reported that the astronaut was discharged “in good health” from a Florida hospital after spending the night there. They then went back to their home base in Houston to resume their regular post-flight activities.
Due to medical privacy concerns, the space agency did not reveal the astronaut’s identity or any information about their condition. The Dragon spacecraft carried three NASA astronauts: mission specialist Jeanette Epps, pilot Michael Barratt, and commander Matthew Dominick. The three NASA crew members were joined by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. He returned to Earth without being admitted to the hospital, according to Russia’s space agency.
At a post-flight press conference on Friday, Dominick, Barratt, and Epps responded to questions from the media, but they did not elaborate on the medical problem or identify the person who had it. At first, all four crew members were sent to the hospital in Pensacola, Florida, for assessment; however, Grebenkin and two NASA astronauts were promptly released and given the all-clear to return to Houston. As of the following day, one astronaut was still there.
The medical professional and flight surgeon Barratt stated, “Spaceflight is still something we don’t fully understand.”. Sometimes we discover things that we didn’t anticipate. This was one of those occasions, and we’re still working through the details. As a result, we will only discuss this incident at this time in order to protect patient privacy and allow our procedures to proceed in a systematic way. “.”.
External researchers who frequently publish papers without disclosing identifying information about crew members are given access to NASA’s astronaut health data. NASA officials frequently highlight one of the primary goals of the International Space Station as learning more about how the human body reacts to spaceflight. Federal laws that restrict the release of private medical information, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, apply to the agency.
According to Barratt, “I did not say I was uncomfortable talking about it.”. As I stated, we will not discuss it. I’m a medical professional. My area of passion is space medicine. We all take very seriously how we adjust and how we experience human spaceflight. “.”.
One day, perhaps.
According to Barratt, NASA will provide additional details regarding the astronaut’s medical problem after the flight “in due time.”. In addition to being Barratt’s third space voyage, this was Dominick and Epps’ first space flight.
Prior to the enactment of the HIPAA medical privacy law, NASA astronauts Thomas Stafford, Deke Slayton, and Vance Brand were hospitalized for almost two weeks in 1975 after inhaling toxic propellant fumes that had inadvertently entered the interior cabin of their spacecraft during a parachute descent. This incident is one of the most well-known instances involving astronauts who require hospitalization. When the Apollo-Soyuz mission came to an end, they were heading back to Earth after docking their Apollo command module to an orbiting Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.
The public’s perception of medical privacy has evolved over the past almost half-century, as has NASA’s. NASA revealed at the time that the astronauts experienced lung irritation. According to officials, Brand briefly fainted from the fumes following splashdown and remained unconscious until his crewmates securely placed an oxygen mask over his face. Physicians were also made available by NASA and the military to respond to inquiries from the media regarding their health.
There are other aspects of the Crew-8 mission that are still unknown, besides the medical issue following splashdown last month. NASA canceled the planned spacewalk with Dominick and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson on June 13 due to a “spacesuit discomfort issue.”. In order to retrieve a malfunctioning electronics box and gather microbial samples from the space station’s exterior, NASA rescheduled the spacewalk for June 24 and substituted Barratt for Dominick. However, Dyson reported a water leak in her spacesuit’s cooling and service umbilical unit, ending the trip after just thirty-one minutes.
Dominick refused to respond to an inquiry from Ars about the discomfort of the suit, even though Barratt went into considerable detail about the water leak on Friday. He stated, “We’re still investigating and attempting to determine all the details.”.
Getting older is acceptable.
Regarding the water leak, Barratt stated that he and Dyson observed that her suit had a “spewing umbilical, which was actually quite dramatic.”. He claimed that it was “no-brainer” to call off the spacewalk.
“We have footage, and it was not a trivial leak,” Barratt stated. Since the hatch was already open, anyone watching NASA TV at the time could see that there was essentially a blizzard of snow gushing from the airlock. There were ice flakes visible in the airlock, and Tracy noticed that there were numerous flakes on her gloves, helmet, and other items. The word “dramatic” is appropriate, to be honest. “,”.
Using her ice-covered gloves and helmet, Dyson, who returned to Earth in September aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, reconnected the leaking umbilical while having limited vision. As stated by Barratt, “Tracy’s actions were nowhere short of heroic.”.
The astronauts shut the hatch and started repressurizing the airlock after the leak had stabilized.
“I grabbed her legs and used her as an end effector to lever that thing closed, and she just made it happen,” Barratt explained when discussing how he got the airlock closed. “So, yes, there was drama. Everything was successful. Once more, our bacon was saved by standard procedures. “,”.
Barratt said there was no procedural error that resulted in the leak while the astronauts were getting their suits ready for the spacewalk.
“There was unquestionably a hardware problem,” he stated. “We replaced the entire umbilical because there was a small poppet valve on the interface that didn’t seat well, so the real question was why that didn’t seat. “,”.
NASA had already shifted its focus from the space station to other projects, including experiments, the arrival of a new cargo ship, and testing of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, which had docked at the complex before it finally left and its crew behind. It had to wait since the spacewalk wasn’t urgent. As early as January, NASA now intends to try the spacewalk once more with a new crew of astronauts.
According to Barratt, the spacesuits on board the space station are ready for the upcoming spacewalk. Nevertheless, the suits are decades old, and NASA created the units for the space shuttle more than 40 years ago. The development of a replacement suit for low-Earth orbit has come to a standstill. Collins Aerospace canceled a NASA contract in June to construct new spacesuits for future orbiting research outposts and the International Space Station.
Barratt stated, “We will anticipate some hardware issues with repeated use and not really upgrading, as none of our spacesuits are spring chickens.”.
