Adapting Disease Prevention Protocols for Human Spaceflight During COVID-19

Area of Science:

• Spaceflight Medicine
• Infectious Disease Prevention
• Public Health

Background:

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Health Stabilization Program (HSP) traditionally minimizes pre-flight infectious disease risk for astronauts.
• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated novel adaptations of the HSP for commercial spaceflight, exemplified by the Crew Demo-2 mission.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail and analyze the first commercial adaptation of the NASA HSP during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of modified disease prevention protocols in a commercial spaceflight context.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective descriptive analysis of disease prevention protocols applied before the Crew Demo-2 launch.
• Implementation of enhanced HSP measures including daily symptom surveys for contacts, COVID-19 RT-PCR testing, and stringent quarantine procedures.

Main Results:

• 91 SpaceX Primary Contacts completed 2720 symptom surveys; 22 individuals and 198 surveys indicated potential COVID-19 symptoms.
• Two individuals were removed from the program due to symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
• The Crew Demo-2 mission proceeded without any known infectious disease transmission.

Conclusions:

• The commercial adaptation of the NASA HSP by SpaceX was successful in identifying and isolating potentially infectious individuals.
• The adapted HSP protocols offer a viable framework for infectious disease management in future commercial spaceflight operations.