After over a year in space, Frank Rubio must adjust to gravity.
“Your lower back and the soles of your feet hurt a little bit the first few days,” he said at a Friday press briefing at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. “
“I believe that because your lower back now bears half of your weight, there is a certain amount of pain associated with this.”
Two weeks ago,US astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth after 371 days in orbit. A Russian rocket sent him on a six-month mission in September last year.
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As an emergency backup, the Soyuz spacecraft was kept at the International Space Station. Built for their homecoming. A micrometeoroid likely caused it to spill coolant suddenly in December.
Russian space agency Roscosmos returned the spacecraft to Earth for safety.
It also dispatched an empty one, forcing Rubio and company to take up the second ship’s duties to return.
Rubio: “Being cooped up for a whole year was a kind of torture for me because I love being outside.”
It also contributes to the goal. Reminding oneself, “Hey, this is my world for the next 12 months, and I have to deal with that,” was crucial.
Due to the misunderstanding, the child of an El Salvadoran immigrant beat Mark Vande Hei’s 2022 record of 355 days in space and became the first American to achieve it.
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Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov had the longest flight at 437 days.
“You try to walk straight for the first few days (back on Earth), but you drift to the right or left,” he says.
“Your body just doesn’t react the way you expect it to, even though your mind is completely clear.”
Growing tomatoes on the ISS would have been another first for Rubio.
The astronaut added, “I think I know what the first tomato in space was.”
After securing it with Velcro in “a little bag,” he lost it.
Rubio spent hours searching but found nothing. After drying, it could have been trash.
“Yet,” he quips, “some people will say I probably ate it.”
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