Molecular and physiological changes in the SpaceX Inspiration4 civilian crew.

Human spaceflight has historically been managed by government agencies, such as in the NASA Twins Study, but new commercial spaceflight opportunities have opened spaceflight to a broader population. In 2021, the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission launched the first all-civilian crew to low Earth orbit, which included the youngest American astronaut (aged 29), new in-flight experimental technologies (handheld ultrasound imaging, smartwatch wearables and immune profiling), ocular alignment measurements and new protocols for in-depth, multi-omic molecular and cellular profiling. Here we report the primary findings from the 3-day spaceflight mission, which induced a broad range of physiological and stress responses, neurovestibular changes indexed by ocular misalignment, and altered neurocognitive functioning, some of which match those of long-term spaceflight, but almost all of which did not differ from baseline (pre-flight) after return to Earth.

Staying Cool in Space: A Review of Therapeutic Hypothermia and Potential Application for Space Medicine.

Despite rigorous health screenings, medical incidents during spaceflight missions cannot be avoided. With long-duration exploration flights on the rise, the likelihood of critical medical conditions with no suitable treatment on board will increase. Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) could serve as a bridge treatment in space prolonging survival and reducing neurological damage in ischemic conditions such as stroke and cardiac arrest.

Doppler ultrasound of the central retinal artery in microgravity.

Background: Ocular changes have been noted during long-duration spaceflight; we studied central retinal artery (CRA) blood flow using Doppler before, during, and after long-term microgravity exposure in astronauts compared with data from a control group of nonastronauts subjected to head-down tilt (HDT).

Methods: Available Doppler spectra of International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers were obtained from the NASA Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health database, along with 2D ultrasound-derived measurements of the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD). CRA Doppler spectra and optic nerve sheath images were also obtained from healthy test subjects in an acute HDT experiment at 20 min of exposure (the ground-based analogue).