Astronaut and Cosmonaut Medical Histories

Mercury · Gemini & Apollo · Shuttle · Soviet & Russian · Other · Incident descriptions · References

Name, Country, Year	When					Description
	PRE	UNK	DUR	FLY	POS
Anderson, Michael USA, 1994				fly		Died February 1, 2003 in the Columbia STS-107 accident.
Blaha, John USA, 1980				fly		Clinically depressed aboard Mir 7j
Brandenstein, Daniel USA, 1978			dur			Markedly color blind. [NASA accused of failing to ground medically unfit. Chriss, NC. Houston Chronicle. 12 February 1989; 1A, 14A, 15A]
Brown, David USA, 1996				fly		Died February 1, 2003 in the Columbia STS-107 accident.
Carter, M. L. "Sonny" USA, 1984			dur			Died April 5, 1991 in crash of commercial commuter aircraft, while on NASA business travel.
Chawla, Kalpana USA, 1994				fly		Died February 1, 2003 in the Columbia STS-107 accident.
Clark, Laurel Salton USA, 1996				fly		Died February 1, 2003 in the Columbia STS-107 accident.
Dunbar, Bonnie USA, 1980			dur			Almost dies on October 16, 1994 from anaphylactic shock during a ground-based research experiment that involves the injection of inulin. She later accused the attending flight surgeon of administering an incorrect, dangerous treatment, but a NASA review board found his actions were "appropriate and potentially life-saving." 7k
			dur			Subsequent to the anaphylaxis incident, an abnormality appeared on her electrocardiogram, causing removal from flight status. Dunbar reportedly cried and railed at the flight surgeon who broke the news. She was returned to flight status a week later, but the Russians medically disqualified her from the Shuttle-Mir project until political pressure was applied. 7l
Foale, C. Michael USA, 1987		unk				Is the subject of a book: 34
Garn, Jake USA, 0		unk				Has written a book: 35
				fly		Space sick. His novel contains a first-person description of space sickness, which we can assume is based on Garn's personal experience 35a "Vonberger's sickness didn't hit him until just before dinner. He had been fighting it for a few hours, but as soon as Williams announced that it was time for dinner, Alex Vonberger got sick. And he stayed sick for a day and a half.... Vonberger's first night in space was miserable. Everything was wrong. His insides felt like they were being twisted and squeezed into a golf ball. The nausea and pain were so all-encompassing that his feet and hands hurt."
Griggs, S. David USA, 1978			dur			Died June 17, 1989 when his World War II era aircraft crashed. At that time, he was in flight crew training as pilot for STS-33, which was scheduled for launch two months later.
Hauck, Frederick "Rick" USA, 1978			dur			Recurrent kidney stones. [NASA accused of failing to ground medically unfit. Chriss, NC. Houston Chronicle. 12 February 1989; 1A, 14A, 15A]
Husband, Rick USA, 1994				fly		Died February 1, 2003 in the Columbia STS-107 accident.
Jarvis, Gregory USA, 0				fly		Died January 28, 1986 in the Challenger 51-L accident.
Linenger, Jerry USA, 1992		unk				Has written an autobiography: 36
Lucid, Shannon USA, 1978			dur			In the wake of Bonnie Dunbar's severe reaction to inulin, Lucid announces that she had had a milder reaction to the same compound during a fall 1993 ground test associated with STS-58. 7m
McAuliffe, Christa USA, 0				fly		Died January 28, 1986 in the Challenger 51-L accident.
McCool, William USA, 1996				fly		Died February 1, 2003 in the Columbia STS-107 accident.
McNair, Ronald USA, 1978				fly		Died January 28, 1986 in the Challenger 51-L accident.
Onizuka, Ellison USA, 1978				fly		Died January 28, 1986 in the Challenger 51-L accident.
Resnick, Judith USA, 1978				fly		Died January 28, 1986 in the Challenger 51-L accident.
Robertson, Patricia Hilliard USA, 1998			dur			Died after the crash of a private airplane.
Scobee, Frances USA, 1978				fly		Died January 28, 1986 in the Challenger 51-L accident.
Smith, Michael USA, 1980				fly		Died January 28, 1986 in the Challenger 51-L accident.
Thomas, Andrew USA, 1992				fly		Aboard Mir, gets headaches from carbon monoxide 7n
Thomas, Donald USA, 1990			dur			Was bumped in July 2002 from the ISS Expedition-6 mission "because of doctors' concerns about his radiation exposure in space" [ref1, ref2]. Thomas was replaced by his backup, Don Pettit, four months before liftoff. Thomas' three previous space missions had a total duration of 825 hours. Comment: Given that his most recent prior mission was in 1997, Thomas' cumulative radiation exposure in space should have been known years before he was even assigned to the Expedition-6 crew. [ref1 = Rookie Astronaut to Go on Spacewalk. By Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer, posted: 04:30 pm ET, 07 January 2003, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/pettit_eva_030107.html] [ref2 = Expedition Six Crew Ready for Long Duration ISS Stay. By Jim Banke, Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau of space.com, posted: 07:00 am ET, 10 November 2002, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts113_exp6_021110.html]
Thorne, Stephen USA, 1985			dur			Died May 24, 1986 in the crash of an airplane in which he was a passenger.
Thuot, Pierre USA, 1985	pre					Myopia (see below)
				fly		Did he use contact lenses on the space shuttle? The Whitten web site (see below) says: "Millions of people use contact lenses, but very, very few of them attempt to use contacts while orbiting the earth in the Space Shuttle."
					pos	Had LASIK corneal surgery in January 2000. Since then he has appeared in newspaper advertisements for Whitten Laser Eye Associates (example: ). The Whitten web site says Thuot was nearsighted, but now has uncorrected 20/20 vision, enabling him to "see the world, in a whole new way." NOTE: As of April 2001, this type of eye surgery will disqualify you for military aviation duties and for the astronaut program. Thuot had his operation after leaving NASA and, one would wager, after leaving the US Navy. [Source: http://www.whittenlasereye.com/newsletter/journal3.cfm, accessed on 19 April 2001]
Veach, Lacy USA, 1984			dur			Died of cancer on October 3, 1995
Walker, David USA, 1978					pos	Died, presumably of cancer, at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on April 23, 2001 at age 56. The day before he died, NASA arranged a private link to the International Space Station so Walker could say goodbye to his close friend James Voss, who was aboard the station. [Aviation Week, 30 April 2001, page 29]

Gemini

• Smuggled Dentyne chewing gum aboard, because tooth-brushing was prohibited. 1a

• Astronauts get flatulent because carbon dioxide diffuses from the blood into the colon -- an altitude effect. 2a

Apollo

• Apollo 1 Fire Incident
  Within 15 seconds, the fire raised the pressure inside the Apollo 1 spacecraft to the point where it "cracked and burst like a hard-boiled egg. Concussion from the blast shuddered the base of the rocket 220 feet below. Black smoke and searing fumes billowed around the top and filled the pristine cleanliness of the white room on the gantry with surrounding the ruptured spacecraft. Workmen dashed in to help the astronauts escape but were beaten back by heat and smoke. Twenty-six men later were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. Even with gas masks it was several minutes before they could dislodge the sealed hatch." 3a

• Early Apollo crews (7, 8, 9) got colds before or after launch. Practice of pre-flight isolation began in Apollo 4a. More infection problems around launch: Mattingly removed from Apollo 13 prime crew at the last minutes because he was exposed to German measles. Charlie Duke gets pneumonia just before Apollo 16 launch, so it's postponed 4b.

• Apollo 7 Helmet Mutiny Incident
  All three members of the Apollo 7 crew suffered severe head colds while in orbit. They used up nine of the ten Kleenex boxes packed aboard the spacecraft. They learned that mucus does not drain in zero gravity -- "it remains in the sinus passages." Schirra and crew took Actifed, and Schirra later made television commercials for that product. His daughter punned that Apollo 7 was "the ten-day cold capsule." Schirra later served on the board of the company that made Kleenex 5a. All three crewmembers took decongestants before re-entry 5b 1b

• Shaving discussion -- 1a

• Apollo spacesuits had a little piece of Velcro on the faceplate -- for nose-scratching. 1c

Skylab & ASTP

• Launch director Chris Kraft sent home two flight surgeons that had inserted a rule into the ASTP mission rulebook saying that atrial fib on the pad would remove Slayton from the flight. 4c

• Slayton thinks his 91 year old Aunt Sadie could have flown ASTP 4d

• Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Incident
  Re-entry of the Apollo-Soyuz command module exposed the crew to nitrogen tetroxide gas. For reasons still unclear, Stafford did not throw a switch to turn off reaction control thrusters. As a result N2O4 from the thrusters entered the crew compartment via a vent valve (shades of Soyuz 11) near the roll thrusters. Stafford describes the dramatic events in the spacecraft as it floated upside-down in the ocean:

  I recognized the smell of that yellow-brown mist and knew instantly what it was. ... Our eyes started to water, and we all started coughing as the fumes burned our faces, mouths, and throats. ... I knew we had to get oxygen. ...

  [With extraordinary effort and difficulty] I reached the [oxygen] masks, ripped the cover off them, gave one to Vance, one to Deke, and put one on myself. I turned the valve to start the oxygen flow. 'Wow,' Deke said, 'good idea.' He had been coughing a lot.

  Things started to settle down. [A little bit later] I noticed that while Deke was still coughing, Vance didn't answer me.

  I saw that the oxygen mask had slipped of his face. He was comatose, his hands clenched. I put down my checklist and reached over to get the mask on his face, pushed the high-flow valve on it to give him more oxygen. In a few seconds Vance came to, and started thrashing his arms around. One of his hands hit me right on the face and knocked me back onto the instrument panel. With all the thrashing, the mask fell off his face, and he passed out again. So I moved back to him, and got the mask back on his face. This time I made sure to do a bear hug around his neck and shoulders as I hit the high-flow valve. He revived, and started doing the same struggling, but I was locked onto him and wouldn't let go. The he settled down and got the mask right. 6a

  Events continued to unfold after the spacecraft and crew were recovered aboard the U.S.S. New Orleans. Stafford's account continues:

  We had breathed rocket fuel from twenty-four thousand feet down and it had burned our noses, throat, and lungs. Our postflight medical examination in the sick bay of New Orleans showed that we had come very close to serious injury. [Traditional post-splashdown ceremonial activities were cancelled.] Flying us to Hawaii was out of the question. ...

  The next morning, X rays showed that our lungs were filled with edema, as though we were suffering from chemical-induced pneumonia. When I started up the ladder toward the admiral's quarters and breakfast, I found I could only take a few steps at a time before I had to stop and rest. Deke passed out briefly.

  In Honolulu, we were taken in ambulances to Trippler [sic] Army Hospital for more extensive examinations. ... With cortisone treatment therapy, we started to improve, and by the thirtieth our chest X rays had returned to normal. [They had splashed down on July 24.] We then moved to a resort at the Marine Corps Air Station, Kenoe Bay, on the east end of Oahu. 6b

  Slayton adds:

  The small drag chute deployed with a big whap, and suddenly we had a cockpit full of yellow gas. ...

  It wasn't until the press conference on deck [of New Orleans], when we were talking to President Ford, that we even bothered to mention the problem. It came up when we summed up the flight as very smooth, a piece of cake "except for the last four minutes." ... They stopped the conference and hauled us downstairs. ...

  The doctors started pumping cortisone into us. A good thing, too. We hadn't felt too bad once we got out of the command module and onto the ship ... but about three-quarters of an hour later, suddenly we all felt like we had pneumonia. A lethal dose of the gas was four hundred parts per million. They estimated we had inhaled it at three hundred parts per million. Pretty close. For the next ten days we steamed toward Honolulu, with the doctors giving us chest X-rays every few hours. I wasn't feeling too hot there for awhile. 4e.

  [If someone has a copy of the post-flight medical report for Apollo-Soyuz, I would love to see it. Thanks.]

Shuttle

• "Our astronauts suffered from motion sickness this weekend..... I would guess that's a bad thing to suffer from in a weightless environment. What do you do? Throw down?" -- television comedian Johnny Carson on November 16, 1982, during the STS-5 mission.

Mir

• Russians smoke cigarettes and drink vodka aboard Mir. 7a

• Cosmonauts talk to psychics 7b

• Stocked porno films aboard Mir 7c

• The Russians refused to let NASA sample the air aboard Mir or disclose the nutritional composition of the food that American astronauts would be eating aboard the station. 7d

Other Russian and Soviet

• Russian psychologists prematurely terminate three space missions from 1976 on. 7e

• Soyuz 11 Incident
  In June 1971 the three-man Soyuz 11 crew completed the world's first flight to a space station (Salyut 1) and set a space endurance record of 23.77 days. Their mission had been planned for 30 days, but a small fire and difficult working conditions aboard Salyut led to the decision to return early. The actual Soyuz 11 prime crew was Leonov, Kubasov, and Kolodin. But Kubasov had been grounded by physicians a few days before launch, so the backup crew was launched instead. They all died during re-entry as a result of a cabin pressurization problem. A valve that was supposed to have opened at an altitude of 4 km had been jerked open when a piece of the spacecraft was jettisoned at a higher altitude. The crew was not wearing space suits. The Soyuz was re-designed to accomodate only two crewmembers, but in spacesuits. [Encyclopedia Astronautica] Lots of information in Deke!

  Stafford writes that the crew tried to close the valve, but it was poorly designed:

  By now the descent module had been venting air for at least twenty seconds. This rapid depressurization would have been horribly painful: The crew passed out. Fifty seconds after the initial jolt, they were dead. The crew was not wearing pressure suits, which would have saved them. That configuration of the Soyuz descent module simply did not have room for three suited cosmonauts and their equipment. 6c

• Soyuz 18-1 Incident
  Two Soviets, Lazarev and Makarov, pull +18 Gs on re-rentry after a mission-abort in space. 4f

• Perhaps the most important medical incident in the history of the Soviet space program was the death, on January 14, 1966, of Sergei Korolev. Korolev was the fabled "Chief Designer" of Soviet space vehicles and "was the most powerful and capable individual in the Soviet space program 6d . He died as a result of a botched surgical operation.

International Space Station

• Nothing to report yet.

General

• Space sickness can last 2 weeks and include headaches 7f

• Clear example of post-traumatic stress disorder, as described in Achilles in Viet Nam 7g

• "Immune system deficiences are common after long-duration space flight." 7h

• Post-flight babble syndrome. 7i

• Submariner with one leg 1.5 inches shorter than the other. Another with a history of rheumatic fever 8a

• Submarine reactor technicians facing so many faults they took speed 8b

• Some of the greatest US pilots in Desert Storm had poor eyesight, but would purposely select wingmen with good eyesight 9a

1. Cernan, Eugene. The Last Man on the Moon. New York: St. Martin's, 1999.

   a  p.220  b  p.178  c  p.298  d  pp.137-142  e  p.133  f  pp.138, 151  g  pp.142-143  h  p.144  i  p.203  j  pp.257-265  k  pp.286-7  l  pp.287-290  m  p.297  n  p.345  o  p.84  p  p.328  q  p.81  r  p.64

2. Bolin, Terry; Stanton, Rosemary. Wind Breaks. New York: Bantam, 1995.

   a  p.30

3. Grissom, Betty. Starfall. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1974.

   a  p.5  b  p.56  c  p.93  d  p.155

4. Slayton, Donald K. Deke!: U.S. Manned Space Flight from Mercury to the Shuttle. New York: Forge: St Martin's Press, 1994.

   a  pp.226, 239  b  p.276  c  p.299  d  p.304  e  pp.304-305  f  p.295  g  pp.92-93  h  p.213  i  p.14  j  p.60  k  p.48  l  p.88  m  p.85  n  p.112  o  p.115  p  pp.265, 275  q  p.274  r  p.275  s  p.305  t  p.266  u  p.201  v  p.153  w  p.72  x  p.261  y  p.269

5. Schirra, Walter M. Schirra's Space. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1988.

   a  pp.204-205  b  p.208  c  p.65  d  p.63  e  pp.65, 69, 192  f  pp.61-62  g  pp.192-193  h  p.204  i  p.205  j  p.62  k  p.61

6. Stafford, Thomas P.; Cassutt, Michael. We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002.

   a  p.193-194  b  p.196  c  p.153  d  p.79  e  p.65  f  pp.59, 76  g  p.59  h  pp.66, 70  i  pp.196-7  j  p.148  k  p.117  l  p.185  m  p.75  n  p.93  o  p.92  p  p.95  q  p.126  r  p.85  s  p.110  t  p.119  u  pp.1, 4  v  p.52  w  p.124  x  p.149  y  p.241  z  p.56  aa  p.34  ab  p.151  ac  p.47  ad  p.44

7. Burrough, Bryan. Dragonfly. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

   a  p.89n  b  pp.174, 74  c  p.321  d  pp.304-306  e  p.185  f  pp.116, 123  g  p.214  h  p.269  i  p.475  j  pp.111-112  k  pp.296-299  l  pp.300-304  m  p.298  n  p.508  o  p.355  p  pp.447-448

8. Sontag, Sherry and Drew, Christopher. Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage. New York: Public Affairs, 1998.

   a  pp.144, 141, 152  b  pp.207, 319-320

9. Clancy, Tom and Horner, Chuck. Every Man a Tiger. New York: Putnam, 1999.

   a  pp.355, 357

10. Cooper, L. Gordon. Leap of Faith. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.

    a  p.13  b  p.2  c  p.45  d  pp.47-48, 124  e  pp.49, 65  f  p.5  g  p.59  h  p.125  i  p.1  j  p.33  k  pp.50  l  p.137

11. Glenn, John H. John Glenn: A Memoir. New York: Bantam, 1999.
12. Kelly, Fred. America's Astronauts and Their Indestructable Spirit. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books, 1986.

    a  p.36  b  p.89  c  pp.128-129  d  p.128  e  p.130

13. Collins, Michael. Lift-Off. New York: Grove Press, 1988.

    a  p.52  b  pp.12, 13  c  p.90  d  pp.98-99  e  p.100  f  p.190  g  p.189  h  p.191

14. Kraft, Christopher. Flight: My Life in Mission Control. New York: Dutton, 2001.

    a  pp.Chapter 9

15. Shepard, Alan B. and Slayton, Donald K. Moonshot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1994.
16. Aldrin, Edwin E. Jr. Return to Earth. New York: Random House, 1973.
17. Allen, Joseph. Entering Space. New York: Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1984.
18. Bean, Alan; Fraknoi, Beverly. My Life as an Astronaut. New York: Pocket Books, 1988.
19. Bean, Alan; Chaikin, Andrew. Apollo: An Eyewitness Account by Astronaut/Explorer Artist/Moonwalker Alan Bean. Shelton, CT: Greenwich Workshop Press, 1998.
20. Borman, Frank; Serling, Robert J.. Countdown: An Autobiography. New York: William Morrow, 1988.
21. Johnston, RS et al (eds). Biomedical Results of Apollo (NASA SP-368). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1975.

    a  p.80  b  p.70  c  p.78  d  pp.70-71  e  pp.71-73  f  p.73

22. Collins, Michael. Carrying the Fire. New York: Ballantine, 1974.
23. Conrad, Nancy; Klausner, Howard A. Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond. New York: NAL, 2005.
24. Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979.

    a  p.99

25. Cunningham, Walter. The All-American Boys. New York: Macmillan, 1977.

    a  p.286 Comment: Cunningham published an updated version after the Columbia tragedy.

26. Duke, Charlie. Moonwalker. Nashville: Oliver-Nelson, 1990.
27. Lovell, James. Lost Moon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
28. Mitchell, Edgar D. The Way of the Explorer. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1996.
29. O'Leary, Brian. The Making of an Ex-Astronaut. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970.
30. Pogue, William. How Do You Go to the Bathroom in Space? 2nd edition. New York : Tom Doherty Associates, 1999.
31. Pogue, William. Astronaut Primer. ?? Phoenix, AZ: L 5 Society.
32. Scott, David; Leonov, Alexei. Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race. London: Pocket Books, 2004.
33. Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon. New York: Penguin, 1998 (original (C) 1994).

    a  p.20  b  p.24

34. Foale, Colin. Waystation to the Stars. London: Headline, 1999.
35. Garn, Jake. Night Launch. New York: William Morrow, 1989.

    a  p.89  b  p.63 Comment: Garn was the U.S. Senator from Utah who flew on the Space Shuttle in the 1980s. This book is a novel.

36. Linenger, Jerry. Off the Planet. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
37. Bamford, James. The Puzzle Palace. New York: Penguin, 1982.

    a  pp.215-6

38. Sagdeev, Roald Z.. The Making of a Soviet Scientist. New York: Wiley, 1994.

    a  p.227

39. Titov, Gherman. I am Eagle. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.
40. Sharman, Helen. Seize the Moment. London: Victor Gollancz, 1993.