After spending greater than a yr in space, Frank Rubio now has to get used to that pesky factor Earthlings name gravity.
“Strolling hurts slightly bit the primary few days, the soles of your ft and decrease again,” he mentioned at a information convention Friday at NASA’s Johnson House Heart in Houston, Texas.
“I feel there’s a sure degree of ache that comes with the truth that your lower back now helps half your weight.”
Rubio returned to Earth two weeks in the past after spending 371 days in space, having taken off in September of final yr aboard a Russian rocket for what was alleged to be a routine, six-month mission.
The Soyuz spacecraft that was alleged to carry them again was docked on the Worldwide House Station for use as an emergency backup car. However then it sprung a coolant leak in December, most likely as a result of a micrometeoroid.
In order a precaution, the Russian space company, Roscosmos, returned the vessel to Earth.
It despatched one other, empty one—which meant there could be space for Rubio and firm to return, however they’d have to choose up the mission slated for the crew initially meant to be on that second ship.
“The truth that I used to be going to spend a complete yr cooped up was a form of torture for me, as a result of I like being exterior,” Rubio mentioned.
“However that is a part of the mission. It took slightly little bit of a psychological shift and saying, ‘Hey, that is my world for the following 12 months and I’ve to cope with that.'”
However the misadventure allowed this son of Salvadoran immigrants to seize the document for the longest time an American has spent in space, breaking the 2022 document set by Mark Vande Hei, at 355 consecutive days.
The world record is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, at 437 days.
“For the primary few days (again on Earth) you drift to the suitable or to the left as you attempt to stroll straight,” he says.
“Your thoughts is completely clear, however your physique simply does not reply the best way you anticipate it to.”
Throughout his keep on the ISS, Rubio notched one other potential first when he grew a tomato.
“I feel what was the primary tomato in space,” he mentioned.
He put it in “slightly bag” and mounted it down with Velcro, however ended up dropping monitor of it.
Rubio spent hours on the lookout for it to no avail. It might have dried out and been mistaken for rubbish.
However “some individuals will say I most likely ate it,” he jokes.
© 2023 AFP
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