NASA remains confused about the true reason why four astronauts were admitted to hospital following their landing in late October.
Space remains still a confusing place full of unknowns, and despite countless expeditions to and from the International Space Station issues are still being encountered by astronauts.
Recent expeditions have seen astronauts dramatically lose weight while being suspended in space, but while that has been largely explained by science, this particular incident appears to baffle even NASA.
Following an seven month long expedition, the four NASA Crew-8 astronauts that returned to Earth upon SpaceX's Dragon capsule were immediately admitted to hospital - and for no apparent reason.
Advert
These included three American astronauts - Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps - alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
Still, however, over two weeks after they returned to Earth, nothing has been disclosed surrounding the reason why the group were all admitted to hospital.
Michael Barratt detailed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston that "In the fullness of time, we will allow this to come out."
Advert
"Space flight is still something we don't full understand," Barratt continued, "We're still piecing things together."
There have been further clues from other members of the Crew-8 expedition, with Matthew Dominick alluding to his own health issues post-arrival.
Dominick revealed that one of the most difficult things after returning back to Earth is simply sitting in a hard chair, as reported by The Guardian:
"I remember like the third or fourth day after we got back, we were sitting outside on our patio, with my family eating dinner [...] but I couldn’t sit on that hard chair any more. I just laid a towel down on the ground."
Advert
Of course, people on social media have their own theories, but they do appear to respect the astronauts' supposed desire for privacy.
"It's their personal medical history," one commenter explains on a post in the r/space subreddit, "You're not obligated to share that."
Another user has theorized that this incident might perhaps have something to do with recent weather events: "This crew did spend their mission on orbit during one of the most intense solar storms in decades. I'm wondering if this has something to do with it?"
Advert
As NASA themselves remark there is still so much that we don't know about space so something as supposedly 'unconnected' as a major storm on Earth could have an effect on the astronauts - at the very least in that it delayed their return back home.
They will have, however, received quite the excellent view of the storms while on board the International Space Station, so I don't suppose they can complain too much.