CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥� Three whose prolonged space station mission ended with a trip to the hospital last month declined to say Friday which one of them was sick.
Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps publicly discussed their spaceflight for the first time since returning from the International Space Station on Oct. 25. They spent nearly , longer than expected because of all the trouble with and rough weather, including Hurricane Milton.
Soon after their SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast, the three were taken to a hospital in nearby Pensacola along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who launched with them back in March.
One of the Americans ended up spending the night there for an undisclosed 鈥渕edical issue.鈥� NASA declined to say who was hospitalized or why, citing medical privacy.
When asked at Friday鈥檚 news conference which one had been sick, the astronauts refused to comment.
鈥淪paceflight is still something we don鈥檛 fully understand. We鈥檙e finding things that we don鈥檛 expect sometimes. This was one of those times and we鈥檙e still piecing things together on this," said Barratt.
Barratt, a doctor who specializes in space medicine, was the only member of the crew who had flown in space before.
The two astronauts who served as test pilots for Boeing's Starliner 鈥� Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams 鈥� will remain at the space station until February, flying back with SpaceX. Starliner returned empty in September.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute鈥檚 Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press
