Astronaut Scott Kelly Still Feels 'Space Stint Effects' After Three Months On Earth

Sam D

First Posted: Jun 13, 2016 06:15 AM EDT

American astronaut Scott Kelly may have been back on the planet for three months, but the after effects of his one year stay in space refuse to leave him, at least for the moment. Kelly also reportedly said that the length of space flights determines how bad the after effects can be on landing. Incidentally, the veteran astronaut has been on four flight missions, out of which two were short stints of seven and 13 days respectively, while the others were long stays of 159 and 340 days.

"After I got back, I’ve talked about just being really sore and stiff,” said Scott Kelly. “My skin had not touched anything in 340 days except just your clothing. Anything it touched, it felt like it was on fire. I actually had some rashes and kind of discoloration anywhere I had contact. And then I kind of had flu-like symptoms for a few days”. The astronaut has recently said that his feet still hurt.

.@marion_obermayr My feet do hurt... #askAstro pic.twitter.com/Rn9K9uVDHW

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) May 25, 2016

The microgravity of space throws normalcy into a bit of a tizzy for astronauts. Once they are back on Earth, they go through Entry Motion Sickness (EMS), ultra sensitive skin and low blood pressure with symptoms like nausea, vomiting, pallor sweating, dizziness and headache. It usually takes anywhere from six weeks to three years for space returned astronauts to readapt to the gravity of the Earth, in fact normal speech can also be affected as the lips and tongues get adapted to talking in weightlessness. Space flight can also have adverse implications for the health like artery stiffness and loss of bone mass.

In spite of all the so called effects on well being and health, Kelly doesn’t view the discomforts as deterrents. In fact, the veteran states that he opted to be an astronaut due to the hardships involved. In addition, Kelly implies that astronauts undergo the after effects of space flights as part of experiments to determine the prospects and implications of future deep space explorations by humans like the Mars mission, so that once those astronauts land back on Earth they won’t have to face the same side effects.