A Nasa astronaut was flown to a hospital with an unspecified medical issue on Friday shortly after returning to Earth from a nearly eight-month mission on the International Space Station, the US space agency said.
The astronaut, who Nasa did not name for privacy reasons, had splashed down off Florida's coast at 7.30am (British time) on Friday aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule with three other crew members - two Nasa astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut.
They were Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
The three others left hospital and went back to Houston on Friday.
Nasa said: "The one astronaut who remains at Ascension is in stable condition under observation as a precautionary measure."
The European Space Agency unveiled plans on Thursday to speed up payments to the space industry in the face of mounting job cuts, while imposing more scrutiny following cost overruns and delays.
Director general Josef Aschbacher announced the measure after a council meeting of the 22-nation agency, a week after Airbus announced 2,500 job cuts mainly in its loss-making satellites business.
Meanwhile, the agency is in talks with SpaceX about the possibility of Elon Musk's space venture joining an international charter designed to reduce a growing swarm of debris in space, Director general Josef Aschbacher told Reuters.
The 22-nation agency is spearheading one of several efforts to roll back the mass of space junk swirling round the planet from past missions that poses a risk to active satellites.
Last month, a SpaceX capsule arrived at the International Space Station to take home stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
The pair have been stuck on the ISS after the Boeing Starliner capsule they arrived on in June was deemed unfit to return them to Earth.
The Starliner capsule suffered thruster failures and helium leaks, with Nasa deciding it wasn't safe for the astronauts to return on it. It was sent back to Earth empty earlier this month.
