Sunita Williams' Starliner impacted hospitalised NASA astronauts' late return. Now, they reveal post-splashdown symptoms
During a NASA press conference last week, the SpaceX Crew-8 mission members discussed readjusting to life on Earth after an extended ISS stay.
NASA is still not open to revealing why one of its astronauts had to be mysteriously hospitalised overnight after the delayed return of SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission members on October 25. Nonetheless, three out of four of them have now spoken out about what readjusting to life on Earth after months on board the International Space Station (ISS) has been these past weeks after the spacecraft’s splashdown off the coast of Florida last month.
Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps led the NASA news conference on Friday, November 8, while their fellow crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, did “not participate because of his travel schedule,” according to an official news release. The Crew-8 quartet spent 235 days in space, launching on March 3. Their ultimate homecoming round-trip was pushed back for several reasons, including the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. The latter commercial capsule’s issues, including thruster malfunctions and helium leaks, have further delayed Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore’s return to Earth as well following their early June takeoff.
NASA astronauts / SpaceX Crew-8 members describe readjusting to Earth's environment
Being exposed to a no-gravity environment for months, Dominick, Barratt and Epps finally opened up about re-adapting to their home environment during the Friday conference. “I’m a first-time flyer, and fascinated by the readaptation,” said mission commander Matthew Dominick. “The big things you expect — being disoriented, being dizzy. But the little things like just sitting in a hard chair … My backside has not really sat in a hard thing for (235) days.”
The NASA astronaut also explained how a recent outdoor family dinner moment forced him to lie down on a towel in the yard after his seated position resulted in discomfort.
He joked that the book he read beforehand did not mention the difficulties of sitting on a hard chair after his space journey.
Epps chimed in, “The weight and the heaviness of things just is surprising.” Despite the urge to lie down, she also emphasised how important it was to exercise every day after their return to Earth. “(I’ve been) laying any chance I got. But you have to move, and you have to exercise every day, otherwise you don’t get those gains. You have to move regardless of how exhausted you feel.”
The overnight hospitalised astronaut's details still a mystery
All three NASA astronauts repeatedly declined to comment on their hospitalisation. The US government agency also remains tight-lipped about the identity of the unspecified crew member (though listed as a NASA personnel) who had to extend their hospital visit briefly. The other three were discharged on the same day. Even though these hospital visits have repeatedly been labelled as mysterious or unexpected, it has been reiterated that such medical checkouts are nothing out of the ordinary after long-term space missions.
Also read | Kate Middleton ‘never had cancer’? Bombshell conspiracy theories erupt again
CNN reported that this case is particularly eyebrow-raising because the astronauts weren’t directly transported back to their Houston home base after the splashdown. They had to be rerouted to a local hospital before anything else. On top of that, a mystery quartet member had to remain at the hospital overnight, followed by the bare minimum update of them being “in stable condition” and “under observation as a precautionary measure.”
Barratt, a medical doctor and the veteran Crew-8 pilot, doubled down on prioritising “medical privacy,” as he said that the details will eventually come out “in the fullness of time.” He asserted, “Medical privacy and the processes we have going on right now negate our ability to (discuss the issue).”
While the Crew-8 was stuck in space, Williams and Wilmore’s Starliner was sent back to the home planet empty to prioritise their safety. Consequently, the SpaceX Crew-9 mission launch was delayed as NASA enlisted it for the Starliner astronauts’ rescue mission. Ultimately, Crew-9 had to arrive before Crew-8 could embark on its homecoming journey to fulfil a handover of duties.
The Crew-8 mission also suffered a weeks-long delay due to hurricane chaos in early October.