An astronaut’s journey back to the Earth Today’s Video of the Day from the European Space Agency shows us how astronauts return to the Earth from space.
The Soyuz spacecraft cruises along at approximately 28,800 kilometers per hour. Once the rocket has re-entered the planet’s atmosphere, parachutes are deployed to deliver the capsule and its passengers safely to the ground.
From your lack of spatial awareness to missing that bird’s eye view from the International Space Station, astronauts come back home to solid ground and experience all kinds of symptoms as a result of long stays in space.
Astronauts on the International Space Station, or ISS, often spend six to 12 months in space, orbiting Earth. It can be a little cramped staying inside the space station all that time. Astronauts still need to do their everyday living, such as working, eating, relaxing and exercising, but with fewer resources than they have on Earth.
Astronauts exercise for about two hours every day when in space to keep up muscle mass. Also the bone density while in microgravity, but that doesn’t mean that it’s automatically simple to walk upright in Earth’s gravity. Astronauts still need to do their everyday living, such as working, eating, relaxing and exercising, but with fewer resources than they have on Earth. Imagine you and your family are astronauts on the space station right now. You can only use the resources available to you. An astronaut’s journey back to the Earth as shown above in video shows the return home.
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer
Video Credit: European Space Agency