SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut remains hospitalized after early splashdown

One of the SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts that splashed down early Friday morning off Pensacola, Fla., was in stable condition later Friday in Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola after experiencing a medical issue.

NASA didn’t identify the astronaut still hospitalized.

NASA said in a statement, “NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were flown together to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida.”

NASA added that “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.”

Three of the crew members were released after their medical evaluations and went to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA said they were transported to the hospital “out of an abundance of caution.”

The Crew-8 members completed a 235-day mission on the International Space Station with the splashdown early Friday morning. NASA said the SpaceX Dragon capsule “executed a normal entry and splashdown.”

Upon exiting the splashdown vehicle, all of the crew were taken away from the spacecraft using a stretcher.

Starliner astronauts “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams are still on the space station, with a February scheduled return with Crew-9 members Nick Hague and Alexander Gorbunov.

Wilmore and Williams were stranded at the space station when NASA deemed it too risky to allow the Boeing-built Starliner to bring them home from the space station. Their original mission was to last just two weeks.

Starliner returned to Earth without a crew Sept. 7.