Crew-8 Home At Last, But One is Hospitalized

The four-person crew of the NASA/SpaceX Crew-8 mission is back on terra firma once again, two months later than planned. The quartet splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola this morning after almost eight months in space. However, about four hours after splashdown NASA announced that the crew had been taken to a local medical facility. Several hours later it added that three of the four had returned to Houston, but one remains in a Pensacola hospital under observation. Due to privacy concerns, NASA is not identifying who it is other than it is one of the NASA astronauts. 

NASA astronauts Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Grebenkin launched on March 3, 2024 for what was expected to be a six-month mission, returning in mid-August after Crew-9 arrived to replace them.

NASA delayed Crew-9’s launch and Crew-8’s return, however, while deciding what to do about the Boeing Starliner CFT crew, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. If they couldn’t come home on Starliner, they would need two of the four seats on Crew-9 and two of the original Crew-9 astronauts would have to stay home. That’s ultimately what NASA decided to do.  Crew-9’s Nick Hague (NASA) and Aleksandr Gorbunov (Roscosmos) launched on September 28 and arrived the next day. After the usual week-long handover period, Crew-8 was getting ready to come home, but lousy weather in Florida prevented it until now.

Their SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule undocked from the International Space Station at 5:05 pm ET on Wednesday and splashed down at 3:29 am ET this morning after 235 days in space. Their nighttime arrival was captured by infrared cameras and narrated by SpaceX commentators.

Splashdown!#Crew8 @NASA_Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, have returned to Earth after 232 days on @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/rFlAljYkgT

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) October 25, 2024

Welcome home, Crew-8! After traveling nearly 100 million miles around the Earth and 235 days in space, your journey is a reminder that no achievement in space—or on Earth—happens alone. Your dedication, resilience, and teamwork have brought us closer to new frontiers, and we… pic.twitter.com/5dDMOGkta0

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) October 25, 2024

However, at 8:20 am ET, NASA posted on X and its commercial crew blog that the crew had been taken to a local medical facility in Pensacola for “additional evaluation … out of an abundance of caution.”

The following is attributed to Cheryl Warner, news chief, NASA’s Office of Communications:

“Following NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission’s safe splashdown and recovery off Florida’s coast early Friday morning, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were taken to a local medical facility for additional evaluation. The crew exited the Dragon spacecraft onto a recovery ship for standard post-flight medical evaluations. Out of an abundance of caution, all crew members were flown to the facility together. NASA will provide additional information as it becomes available.”

NASA posted an update on the blog about 3:00 pm ET to say three of the four had returned to Houston, but one remains at the Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital in stable condition. It declined to say who it is for privacy reasons.

After safely splashing down on Earth as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission Friday, a NASA astronaut experienced a medical issue. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were flown together to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida.

After medical evaluation at the hospital, three of the crew members departed Pensacola and have arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The one astronaut who remains at Ascension is in stable condition under observation as a precautionary measure. To protect the crew member’s medical privacy, specific details on the individual’s condition or identity will not be shared.

During its return to Earth, the SpaceX Dragon executed a normal entry and splashdown. Recovery of the crew and the spacecraft was without incident. During routine medical assessments on the recovery ship, the additional evaluation of the crew members was requested out of an abundance of caution.

We’re grateful to Ascension Sacred Heart for its support during this time, and we are proud of our team for its quick action to ensure the safety of our crew members.

The Crew-8 crew members splashed down aboard their Dragon spacecraft near Pensacola, Florida, to complete a 235-day mission, 232 days of which were spent aboard the International Space Station conducting scientific research.

NASA will provide additional information as it becomes available.

The agency also posted a video on X.

After #Crew8 safely returned to Earth this morning from the @Space_Station, a NASA astronaut had a medical issue and remains under observation as a precautionary measure. Latest information available here: https://t.co/epj1zx4EMa pic.twitter.com/4jhW5x2RST

— NASA (@NASA) October 25, 2024

This was the longest duration flight not just for Crew Dragon, but for any U.S. human spacecraft: 235 days.  Crew Dragons are officially certified for 210 days docked at the ISS, but NASA and SpaceX determined that extending it to 235 days would be OK this time. During a post-splashdown media teleconference this morning, SpaceX’s Bill Gerstenmaier said they’ll look at the data and may work with NASA to officially increase the on-orbit lifetime.  This was Endeavour’s fifth flight. In all, it has spent 702 days in space.

Meanwhile, up in Earth orbit, all is well and the ISS is now back to its usual crew complement of seven — Wilmore and Williams who are now part of Crew-9 along with Hague and Gorbunov and will return in February; and Russia’s Soyuz MS-26 crew, Aleksey Ovchinin (Roscosmos), Ivan Vagner (Roscosmos) and Don Pettit (NASA) who will return in March. Each crew is scheduled to have a routine 6-month stay aboard the ISS, but as events in recent years have demonstrated, flexibility is key to the ISS program.

In addition to Crew-8, which stayed for eight months instead of six months, and the Starliner crew (Wilmore and Williams) who are staying for eight months instead of eight days, three missions have been extended from six months to a year in the past three years for a variety of reasons: Mark Vande Hei and Pytor Dubrov to accommodate two Russian-sponsored spaceflight participants; Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin because their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft had to be replaced; and Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub to accommodate a Russian-sponsored spaceflight participant.

The ISS is an international partnership among the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and 11 European countries working through the European Space Agency. It has been permanently occupied by international crews rotating on roughly six-month schedules since November 2000. The U.S. and Russian segments are interdependent so each crew rotation flight carries at least one crew member from each country to ensure one American and one Russian are always aboard to operate their respective segments.

 

This article has been updated several times.