Astronaut Scott Kelly on What It's Really Like to Spend a Year in Space
Scott and Mark Kelly are the only twins to have traveled in space. Mark piloted the space shuttle three times, the last time in 2011. Scott, who's been up there four times, returned in March from 340 days on the International Space Station.
T&C caught up with the astronaut brothers, both 52, at an opening event for Breitling's New York City showroom. Scott (above right) brought two of the brand's watches to space with him-both gifts from his brother Mark-and is now a Breitling ambassador. We asked him about what it was like to spend a year off-planet, what surprised him the most upon his return, and the first thing he ate when he got back.
What is the biggest physical change you experienced over your year in space?
Mark: "You know what happens in a year in space? Your testicles shrink" -Mark [Ed note: he was joking, we think]
Scott: "The biggest physical change, some of it we don't even know, like, a lot of the research we did is genetically based, samples need to be analyzed. What bothers me the most is how bad my feet hurt still. And that's from a quality of life standpoint. It is the worst change. I had a little bit of structural changes in my eyes, I lost little bit of bone mass but not too much. Some of your bone gets redistributed in your body. My index fingers are now a little crooked, like rotated inward. I think it's just cause of how the bone is moved around. It's kind of odd."
How are you recovering?
Scott: "I hope my feet stop hurting, but I definitely felt a lot worse right when I got back than I do now. I feel like I'm getting better all the time. When you're in space you do some exercising and you run on the treadmill but it's only for 30 minutes a day and you're bungeed down to the treadmill. It's a reduced force than you normally have. And the rest of the time you're not using your feet, at least to walk on. So that's why your feet hurt. Because you don't use them."
Mark, when you saw him for the first time did he look different?
Mark: "Not at all. Everybody looks a little different while they're in space. Some people are like stuffed up with more fluid up in the upper part of their body. Gravity keeps a lot of fluid down here. Your head swells. It actually feels that way, too. Imagine if you were to lie with your feet up at a 45-degree angle for a while."
Scott: "And it never quite goes away completely. Even after 340 days your head is still a little bit swollen. "
What's the biggest challenge facing potential future missions?
Mark: "I think if you're going away from earth the radiation is one of the big challenges. Having lived there in space for 340 days, I think if we're going to spend years in space, artificial gravity is something we should probably consider. We evolved in 1G. When you live in space for that long, if you never came back you'd probably be fine, but when you have to readapt back to earth it's kind of hard. I've noticed that my first flight was 7 days, then 13, then 159 and 340 and it seems to be to be kind of a linear function. The longer you're there, the worse you feel when you get back. And I can't imagine that if I were in space for two years how bad I would feel. It wouldn't be good. You'd have to roll me right from the capsule to the hospital."
What's the best thing you saw from International Space Station?
Mark: "Maybe the cargo ship showing up after you had like three in a row blow up?"
Scott: "Yeah, that was pretty good! It had our food in it-clean underwear, stuff like that. Certainly when the hatch opens after you've been in space, that's pretty good. Doesn't matter what you see then. It's all good. That was pretty exciting. But you know the planet's a beautiful place. No matter how many times I looked out the window from space and I think I've seen it all, I see something new and interesting and beautiful. The earth never disappoints."
What did you bring from home to remind you of life on earth?
Scott: "Most of the stuff I brought were things people gave me as souvenirs for them. I don't think I've ever really taken anything for myself with the exception of a few Breitling watches. Really, that's a true statement. Depending on which watch it is it has functions that are useful like the stopwatch and the alarm. It also looks cool. On the Emergency Watch, I tried to fly it on this last flight and the Russians got wind that it had a transmitter in it, and they're a little cautious, thinking that if it's set off on the space station, it could interfere with the systems, so they didn't let me take it."
What was the most useful thing you had on the International Space Station?
Scott: "The flashlight was pretty useful. My glasses, pretty useful. Watch, useful. Time is very important in space because you're so tightly scheduled. You always need to know what time it is. Whether it's because you need to know what the next thing you need to be doing is, taking a picture of the earth, knowing when you're going to pass over something very accurately because you're going 17,500 miles per hour. Mark said earlier today that he was trying to take a picture of Houston and wondering why there was snow in the image. It's because he was over Montreal! He was a few minutes late."
What were you most surprised by when you came back?
Scott: "I went to LaGuardia Airport and you can't order anything there without using the iPads in the restaurants, which is kind of weird. The most surprising thing is how I felt when I was back, the first week. I was feeling pretty sore. My skin was kind of inflamed. I haven't stopped since I've been back. It's been kind of a whirlwind, completing a lot of the NASA research and debriefs and stuff. I'm starting off on this public speaking tour and writing a book. I think I'm surprised in how busy I've been. Hopefully this summer will calm down."
Did you have any alcohol in space?
Scott: "No alcohol. Alcohol wipes though!"
What was the food you missed the most?
Scott: "Salad. Fresh stuff."
What was the first thing you ate when you got back?
Scott: "A banana. A banana wouldn't do well in space. Rotten banana-who would want that?"
