{"id":70842,"date":"2025-05-03T09:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T09:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/70842\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T09:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T09:56:13","slug":"nasas-oldest-astronaut-who-spent-220-days-in-space-reveals-the-significant-challenge-after-returning-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/70842\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s oldest astronaut who spent 220 days in space reveals the \u2018significant challenge\u2019 after returning to Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA’s oldest astronaut, who spent 220 days in space, has spoken about one of the most difficult parts of returning to Earth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When astronauts return back to their home planet, it would make sense that they’d be feeling a little worse for wear, what with the fact they’ve been living up in space<\/a> and all of the lifestyle changes that can bring.<\/p>\n

And while every person is different and every astronaut experiences varying levels of side effects after returning to Earth<\/a>, 70-year-old Don Pettit has been pretty frank about how his recent trip affected him.<\/p>\n

Don, along with two cosmonaut team members, returned on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last month after seven months on the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n

They touched down in Kazakhstan<\/a> and images show Don being carried to the medical tent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Don<\/p>\n

Don Pettit (middle) set off in September last year to spend seven months onboard the ISS (Bill Ingalls\/NASA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

After the photos of the American NASA<\/a> astronaut returning circulated online, many people were concerned over his appearance.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t look too good because I didn’t feel too good,” Pettit told reporters earlier this week. “I was right in the middle of emptying the contents of my stomach onto the steppes of Kazakhstan.”<\/p>\n

If you’re wondering why you didn’t see any photos of Don looking like he was about to throw up, there’s a simple explanation for that.<\/p>\n

“They’re polite, and they don’t have a camera shoved in your face when you’re in the middle of doing that,” he later added.<\/p>\n

“They cut away to give you a little bit of privacy when you’re not feeling too good. Because, after all, nobody wants to be on camera when you’re doing that.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The astronauts recently returned from their seven-month mission (Bill Ingalls\/NASA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Don went on to explain that he’s always struggled with returning back to Earth, explaining that it’s just ‘his physiology’.<\/p>\n

“Some people can roll off a [space] shuttle flight, and they’re ready to go out and have pizza and dance,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Someone like me, coming back to Earth has always been a significant challenge. And even with a 16-day shuttle mission, that felt about like being gone for six months on space station.<\/p>\n

“And that’s just my physiology.”<\/p>\n

\"Don<\/p>\n

Don was carried to the medical tent upon his return to Earth (Bill Ingalls\/NASA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Don – who is NASA’s oldest astronaut – is recovering now and is currently undergoing rehab for the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

While he might not feel his best returning to Earth, Don certainly feels good while he’s up there, explaining that all the aches and pains melt away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me feel like I\u2019m 30 years old again,” said Don.<\/p>\n

“All that kind of stuff heals up because you\u2019re sleeping, you’re just floating and your body, all these little aches and pains and everything heal up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA’s oldest astronaut, who spent 220 days in space, has spoken about one of the most difficult parts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19526,7545,875,874,35474,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-70842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-astronaut","9":"tag-don-pettit","10":"tag-earth","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-returning-to-earth","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114443307169478076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}