"Yeah... that's the ticket!"

So... after scrubbing the launch of the unmanned Artemis 1 spacecraft twice in one week due to mechanical failure, a report about the effect of space travel on human blood just happens to pop up on Bing's news feed.

With planned deep space and commercial spaceflights, gaps remain to address health risks in astronauts. Multiple studies have shown associations between clonal expansion of hematopoietic cells with hematopoietic malignancies and cardiometabolic disease. This expansion of clones in the absence of overt hematopoietic disorders is termed clonal hematopoiesis (CH) of indeterminate potential (CHIP). Using deep, error-corrected, targeted DNA sequencing we assayed for somatic mutations in CH-driver genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from de-identified blood samples collected from 14 astronauts who flew Shuttle missions between 1998–2001. We identified 34 nonsynonymous mutations of relatively low variant allele fraction in 17 CH-driver genes, with the most prevalent mutations in TP53 and DNMT3A. The presence of these small clones in the blood of relatively young astronaut cohort warrants further retrospective and prospective investigation of their clinical relevance and potential application in monitoring astronaut’s health. (Link to full report)

Any bets on NASA cancelling the Artemis program altogether and blaming it on "Space COVID"?

We'll know for sure when NASA hires John Lovitz as their communications secretary: "Of course we're not going back to the moon. But it's not because we don't have the technology -- it's because of ... mutations. Space mutations! Yeah... that's the ticket!"