Travelling to space brings to mind images of exploration, discovery and pushing the limits of human knowledge.
We picture towering rockets and gleaming space shuttles that launch astronauts towards the heavens at speeds hard to comprehend.
But there are also many secrets we’re often not told about – from the sublime to the ridiculous.
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Metro.co.uk spoke to former Nasa astronaut José Moreno Hernández at the Kennedy Space Center to get a behind-the-scenes look at life in orbit.
José was part of the 30th mission to the International Space Station (ISS), where he served as a mission specialist on STS-128 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. During the mission, he conducted two spacewalks and helped to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.
He was also the first Mexican-American to travel to space.
Here he shares four fascinating tales from his life as an astronaut.
Space sleep is ‘like sleeping on a cloud’
Sleeping in space looks like it could be a hassle because you’re always floating, but José swears it’s the best sleep you’ll ever have.
‘When it’s time to sleep, you roll out a sleeping bag and you tie the four corners because you don’t want to be floating around and accidentally push the eject button,’ he jokes.
‘You slip under it, pull up the zipper, stick your hands out and go to sleep.
‘It’s the best sleep you can have because there are no pressure points.
‘It’s better than the most expensive mattress in the world. It’s like sleeping on a cloud.’
You have to pass a ‘poo-aiming test’ before you can go to space
Doing a number one in space is pretty straightforward – all you need is a ‘hose assembly thing’ that uses a vacuum pump to create artificial gravity, says José.
But when it comes to a number two, things are much more complex. Astronauts can’t use a normal size toilet because it would need too big a motor to create artificial gravity – and Nasa is always aiming to reduce size and weight.
‘The toilet seat that’s this big [normal size], gets reduced to this big,’ says José, making tiny circle with his hands. So you better have good aim.
‘And I kid you not, there’s a class – we take potty 101.
‘You take a class on going to the restroom and they won’t check you off until you can do a number one and number two.’
Rookies still get pranked even in space
José revealed his Nasa trainers had a sense of humour after they neglected to tell him some vital intel he would need to know on his mission.
He had been trained to replace an essential cabin air filter, but when it came to actually doing it on the ISS, he found it more challenging than first thought.
‘So as I was twisting my wrist one way, my body was twerking the opposite way, and the screw was not moving,’ he says.
‘I started scratching my head and I looked around hoping no one was watching because I was embarrassed.’
However, he soon spotted two loops for his feet on the floor which he used to anchor himself in place, enabling him to perform the task easily.
When he returned to Earth, he told Nasa staff they should have told him about the foot loops as he felt this was a ‘deficiency’ in training.
‘And then they all looked at each other and they just started laughing,’ he says.
Then they told him: ‘Yeah, we do that to every rookie.’
Don’t be a messy eater
José reveals the first time he tried to eat something in space it didn’t quite go to plan.
‘The first time you eat you tend to open up too many packets and they’re floating around, and you want to make sure they don’t get away from you as you’re eating,’ he says.
No one wants to be responsible for letting crumbs float into a vital piece of equipment, and José quickly learnt his lesson.
‘You have to open one packet and eat it, and then open another.’
José is an ambassador for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida
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