I’m wondering if anybody has done a study of the affects of long-term spaceflight as far as the incidence of Cancer? Seems to me that an awful lot of astronauts have died of relatively rare forms of Cancer. I know that radiation shielding & solar flare detection are major engineering efforts within NASA.
Actually most US astronauts are still alive and that’s even if you include the Mercury astronauts.
Of the 44 who have died so far, 26 have died in accidents, not just disintegrating shuttles but plane flights and motorcycle crashes, 10 from cancer, interestingly Stuart Roosa died at 61 from pancreatitis which is one of the risk factors for pancreatic cancer, 5 died from heart attacks, Karl Henize while climbing Mount Everest.
Other than John Swigert who had a tumor appear in his nasal cavity, there doesn’t seem to be anything statistically abnormal going on.