Three NASA astronauts who has just finished 235-day mission to the International Space Station discussed its flight with reporters Friday, but steadfastly declined to comment about a medical problem of a kind that caused one astronaut to spend the night in the hospital after landing.

The unidentified astronaut returned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston the day after landing in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 25, rejoining his teammates. But NASA, citing medical privacy concerns, provided no details other than saying the astronaut “is in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with the other crew members.” .

“I know there might be some interest in our post-flight medical event, where we diverted to a hospital,” Crew 8 pilot Mike Barratt, a doctor, told reporters Friday. -astronaut. “You know, spaceflight is still something we don’t completely understand. We sometimes discover things we didn’t expect, and this was one of those times.

“We’re still putting things together on this. And so, to preserve medical confidentiality and allow our processes to proceed in an orderly manner, that’s all we’re going to say about this event for the moment.”

Barratt, Crew 8 Commander Matt Dominick, astronaut Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were launched from the Kennedy Space Center on March 3 and docked with the space station two days later. They returned to Earth last month after an extended stay in space.

Barratt, Dominick and Epps all looked healthy and in good spirits Friday as they continue their readjustment to gravity. Grebenkin returned to Moscow shortly after landing, but in a social media post just after the crew returned to Earth, he smiled and said he was in good shape.

Although the presumably minor medical issue remains a mystery, the crew shared highlights of their time in space, including details about a water leak during preparations for a June spacewalk that caused a snowstorm in the space station’s airlock.

After a spacesuit “discomfort” issue forced Dominick and astronaut Tracy Dyson to cancel a planned June 13 spacewalk, Dyson and Barratt suited up for another excursion on June 24.

While floating in the airlock with the outer hatch open to the space, an umbilical failed to “seat” properly and water began to flow into the chamber.

“Oh, my God,” Dyson said when she noticed water gushing out. “There’s a lot of water flowing. There’s literally water everywhere…I have ice all over my helmet.”

“This was not a trivial leak,” Barratt said Friday. “Anyone watching NASA TV at that time could see that there was basically a snowstorm, a blizzard spewing out of the airlock, because we already had the hatch open. We were seeing flakes of ice in the airlock. Tracy was seeing there are a lot of things on his helmet, on his gloves, etc.

“So it was… dramatic is the right word, to be really honest. I think literally, Tracy’s actions were just heroic to be able to re-couple that umbilical with her hands covered in ice and sort of impaired vision. and close the airlock.”

Barratt said he grabbed her spacesuit legs so Dyson could “shut that thing up, and she just made it happen. So yeah, there was a bit of drama. It all worked out.” went well. And once again, normal processes and procedures saved our bacon.

NASA plans to resume spacewalks in January and Barratt said the suits will be in good condition.

“I think we leave them with a brand new umbilical, a really clean interface on the side where we had the problem and the suits are loaded and really ready to go,” he said. “So I think we’re more than ready for the next EVA campaign. I just wish we did.”

That said, he emphasized, “none of our spacesuits are spring chickens. So we expect to experience hardware issues with repeated use. Again, this is one of those things that we are always, at any second, ready to stop.” …or implement an emergency procedure.”

As for the suit “discomfort” issue reported by Dominick before the previous spacewalk attempt, no details were provided.

“We’re still looking at it and trying to figure out all the details,” Dominick said.