CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Three NASA astronauts The man, whose long space station mission ended with a visit to the hospital last month, declined Friday to say which one was sick.

Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps publicly announced their spaceflight for the first time since returning from the International Space Station on October 25. eight months in orbitlonger than expected due to all the problems Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule and severe weather, including Hurricane Milton.

Shortly after their SpaceX capsule crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, the three were taken to a hospital in nearby Pensacola, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who launched with them in March.

One of the Americans spent the night there due to an undisclosed “medical issue.” NASA declined to say who was hospitalized or why, citing medical privacy.

The astronauts declined to comment at Friday’s press conference when asked which of them was sick. Barratt, a doctor who specializes in space medicine, even refused to describe the symptoms of the unidentified astronaut.

“Space flight is something we still don’t fully understand. Sometimes we encounter things we did not expect. “This was one of those times, and we’re still trying to piece things together on that,” said Barratt, who is the only member of the crew to have flown into space before.

The way everyone responds to space and gravity is different, Epps said.

“This is the part you can’t predict,” he said, adding: “Every day is better than the day before.”

Dominick said it takes a few days to get used to small things like sitting comfortably in a hard chair once you get back to it. He said he never used the treadmill during his time in space as part of an experiment to see what equipment would be a match for a long trip to Mars. He walked when he came out of the capsule for the first time.

Two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who served as test pilots on Boeing’s Starliner, will stay at the space station until February and return with SpaceX. Starliner returned empty in September.

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