Thse insights have been pulled from the individual experiences of astronauts and cosmonauts recorded in published first person accounts — journals, diaries, debriefs, and post-flight reflections.As this database includes the personal, subjective experiences from a diversity of flyers, they may sometimes contradict, but together they provide a more holistic, if messy, picture of life in space. To learn more about how these categories were developed, please see this related publication.
“I always wake up feeling upside down in my crew quarters. It is funny actually, I should video tape me waking up and trying to find my watch to turn the alarm off.”
“I had to make some connections this week in the CIR rack – fluid quick disconnects, that took no less than 100 pounds of force to mate. The push force was toward the floor, so I literally stood on the ceiling and pushed upward with all my might. Tricky.”
“Dealing with the frustration of difficult working positions, equipment floating away, stability, computer failures, bad procedures, disappointing outcomes wears on one after a while.”
“I went down to the Soyuz, which definitely has good orientation. It is very comfortable [to sit there] and I am used to the visual picture…. I [my brain] needs a visual orientation system to reference.”
“Now [with] the equipment being in different orientations, it is easy to lose your place in a procedure.”