• Question: Can you be sick in space

    Asked by Amy to Andrea, Charlie 🚀, Col Op, Kirsty, Vinita on 15 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Yes.
      You need to be careful to catch it all in a bag so it doesn’t float all over the spacecraft- yuck!

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Yes. It barely ever happens. Noone’s been sick on board for many years. If you are sick you need to take time off from the schedule to recover, sleep, fluids, all the usual things to get better.

      Astronauts go into quarantine for 2 weeks before their launch to stay in a super clean environment and to make sure they are not sick. It’s a mega golden rule that none of us can go near an astronaut in training if we are sick – none of this working through the flu – you stay far far away from astronauts!

      All astronauts have medical training so they can treat each other and themselves for most things. If they were really really sick with something serious then of course we could do an emergency Soyuz trip home. All three crew of that person’s Soyuz would return together with the two healthy crew supporting the sick one.

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