Three NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut were unexpectedly transferred to a medical facility in Florida after their splashdown early Friday morning aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, instead of returning directly to their home base in Houston.
One astronaut remained hospitalized due to a “medical issue,” while the other three were cleared for travel to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston following evaluations at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, a local hospital near their splashdown site in the Gulf of Mexico.
NASA has not disclosed specific information about the astronaut still at the medical facility. “To protect the crew member’s privacy, details regarding their condition or identity will not be released,” stated NASA news chief Cheryl Warner in a Friday afternoon update.
The astronaut remaining in the hospital is reported to be in stable condition and is under observation as a precautionary measure, according to NASA.
The Crew-8 team, which spent nearly eight months aboard the International Space Station, successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico at 3:29 a.m. ET on Friday. NASA confirmed that all four astronauts experienced a “safe splashdown and recovery.” However, they were transported to a local medical facility for further evaluation “out of an abundance of caution,” Warner noted in an 8 a.m. ET update.
The Crew-8 team included NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, along with Alexander Grebenkin from the Russian space agency Roscosmos. They participated in a routine mission to the International Space Station conducted by SpaceX on NASA’s behalf.
During the splashdown, all four astronauts were seen smiling and waving as they exited their Crew Dragon capsule and boarded a recovery ship, which was streamed live. No medical concerns were indicated during a 5 a.m. ET briefing.
“Right now, the crew is doing great. They’ll spend a little time on the recovery vessel undergoing medical checks before heading back to Houston,” said Richard Jones, NASA’s deputy manager of the Commercial Crew Program.
Routine medical evaluations follow long-duration space missions, and Crew-8’s mission was notably extended, lasting 235 days, the longest duration for a U.S. crewed vehicle.
Crew-8’s return faced multiple delays for various reasons, including changes in schedule linked to the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which had previously carried two NASA astronauts to the space station in June but was deemed unsafe for crewed return. As a result, those astronauts were reassigned to the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, causing further postponements for Crew-8’s return.
Additional weather-related delays also pushed their return to late October.
