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.”
“Body hasn’t adjusted just yet. I still feel the pressure in my head of body fluids pressurized by my cardiovascular system still being shoved cephalad like on Earth. Lower GI system hasn’t adapted yet either…”
“X harvested some romaine lettuce and put a little of it in his pocket to give to Y and me. It was unreal to taste something so fresh and delicious in this sterile environment.”
“Food is still just okay... There is definitely a difference in quality. I don't know really why that is. Maybe manufacturing or just age of it in the package. But that is something that needs work.”
“Really miss the sound of rain and the cool air and fresh grass smells that come with it. I miss being under a blanket of clouds and guess I’ll always be a child of the Earth.”
"Smells are the most interesting. Node 01 is getting a bit ripe and X has no notice of it. I’m guessing it is from wet trash so I’ll see if it goes away when we change the bag later.”
“Two weeks here and just now beginning to sense that I smell bad. Or maybe it’s me and my crewmates. But on weekends we can throw away some old clothes, scrub ourselves down well after the workouts, and put on brand new clothes.”
“Riding on the [bike] today listening to my music… The song reminded me of the days when I dreamed of being an astronaut. Now I am living in space and preparing for a spacewalk. Wow!”
“The Russian telemetry system is still acting up. It is not the way you want to wake up, especially when you can sleep in."
"The toilet is very noisy and is probably damaging our hearing.”
For a first time flyer, space sickness started after overzealous flying on the first day in microgravity led to nausea. Motion sickness injections were used but it took a few days to recover.
Opening the hatch after docking releases "the smell of space," which to one flyer smelt like burned almond cookies.