NASA’s Oldest Astronaut Reports That Something Strange Happened to His Body When He Went to Space

On his 70th birthday, America's oldest full-time astronaut touched down back on Earth after spending 220 days on the International Space Station — and according to him, he didn't feel his age at all up there. As Ars Technica and other outlets report, NASA astronaut Don Pettit was jovial during his first press appearance since coming back down to Earth on April 20 — though admittedly, it'd been a few days since he'd vomited all over the Kazakh steppes where the Russian Soyuz rocket that brought him home touched down. Coming back to Earth after the weightlessness of space had always been a "significant challenge," Pettit told the press earlier this week at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. With nearly 30 years as an astronaut under his belt, Pettit is an old hand at the ravages of returning to gravity, and with his latest spaceflight, he's now cumulatively spent 590 days — or more than 18 months — on board the ISS. Given his age and the ways zero gravity changes one' ... Read full article.