Three NASA astronauts who just wrapped up a 235-day mission to the International Space Station discussed their flight with reporters Friday, but steadfastly refused to comment on a medical issue of some sort that resulted in one astronaut spending the night in a hospital after landing.
The unidentified astronaut flew back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston the day after splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 25, rejoining their crewmates. But NASA, citing medical privacy issues, provided no details other than to say the astronaut “is in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members.”
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“I know there may be some interest in our post-flight medical event, where we diverted to a hospital,” Crew 8 pilot Mike Barratt, a physician-astronaut, told reporters Friday. “You know, space flight is still something we don’t fully understand. We’re finding things that we don’t expect sometimes, and this was one of those times.
“We’re still piecing things together on this. And so to maintain medical privacy and to let our processes go forward in an orderly manner, this is all we’re going to say about that event at this time.”
Barratt, Crew 8 commander Matt Dominick, astronaut Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were launched from the Kennedy Space Center on March 3 and docked at the space station two days later. They returned to Earth last month after an extended stay in space.
Barratt, Dominick and Epps all appeared healthy and in good spirits Friday as they continue their re-adjustment to gravity. Grebenkin flew back to Moscow shortly after splashdown, but in a social media post just after the crew’s return to Earth, he was smiling and said to be in good shape.
While the presumably minor medical issue remains a mystery, the crew shared highlights of their stay in space, including details about a water leak during preparations for a June spacewalk that triggered a blizzard in the space station’s airlock.
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After a spacesuit “discomfort” problem forced Dominick and astronaut Tracy Dyson to call off a planned spacewalk on June 13, Dyson and Barratt suited up for another excursion on June 24.
While floating in the airlock with the outer hatch open to space, an umbilical failed to “seat” properly and water began spewing into the chamber.
“Oh, my goodness,” Dyson said when she noticed the water spewing out. “There’s a lot of water flowing. There’s literally water everywhere. … I’ve got ice all over my helmet.”
“It was not a trivial leak,” Barratt reflected Friday. “Anybody who was watching NASA TV at the time could see there was basically a snowstorm, a blizzard spewing from the air lock, because we already had the hatch open. We were seeing flakes of ice in the air lock. Tracy was seeing a lot of them on her helmet, on her gloves, whatnot.
“So it was…dramatic is the right word, to be real honest. I think literally, Tracy’s actions were nowhere short of a heroic to be able to re-mate that umbilical with her hands covered with ice and kind of being vision impaired and getting the air lock closed.”
Barratt said he grabbed her space-suited legs so Dyson could “lever that thing closed, and she just made it happen. So yeah, there was a bit of drama. Everything worked out fine. And again, normal processes and procedures saved our bacon.”
NASA plans to resume spacewalks in January, and Barratt said the suits will be in good shape.
“I think we’re leaving them a brand new umbilical, a really clean interface on that side where we had the problem and the suits are charged and really ready to go,” he said. “So I think we are more than ready for the next EVA campaign. I just wish we were doing it.”
That said, he pointed out, “none of our spacesuits are spring chickens. And so we will expect to see some hardware issues with repeated use. So again, it’s one of those things that we are always, at every second, ready to stop…or work a contingency procedure.”
As for the suit “discomfort” issue that Dominick reported prior to the earlier spacewalk attempt, no details were provided.
“We’re still reviewing it and trying to figure all the details out,” Dominick said.
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