Buzz
The risks of space travel are well-known. Some of the most tragic events include the loss of the entire Apollo 1 crew (Gus Grissom, Edward White II, Roger Chaffee) and the Soyuz 11 cosmonaut team (Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev, Vladislav Volkov). Since the 1960s, over 20 astronauts and cosmonauts have tragically died in their quest for the stars.
However, space exploration is not just about the risks. Sally Ride, the first American woman to journey into space, captured its joy perfectly when she said, 'The thing I’ll remember most about the flight is that it was fun. In fact, I’m sure it was the most fun that I’ll ever have in my life.'
Space exploration is a mixture of danger and thrill, often laced with a touch of humor. Here are five instances of the intense reality of space travel, alongside five lighter, quirky moments.
10. The Fear: Blindness During a Spacewalk
The very idea of a spacewalk, or EVA (extravehicular activity), is enough to chill the spine—an astronaut ventures outside the safety of their spacecraft, tethered only by a cord, floating in the vastness of space. One of the most frightening scenarios would be the loss of one of your vital senses. This happened to Commander Chris Hadfield during a spacewalk in 2001.
During a spacewalk, maintaining clear vision is crucial for efficiency. To prevent the visor from fogging, a mixture of oil and soap is applied to the inside of the helmet. In an ironic twist, this solution caused Hadfield to lose his ability to see.
Sweat or tears mixed with the solution, floating into Hadfield’s eyes and instantly blinding him as his eyes began to water. Hadfield remarked, 'I thought, well, I—maybe that’s why we have two eyes. So I kept working.'
With one eye temporarily blinded, it would normally be fine to tear up, as tears are the eyes' natural cleaning mechanism. But in the microgravity of space, the tears didn’t fall from Hadfield’s face.
Instead, the tears formed a spherical mass around his eye, eventually growing large enough to spill over into his other eye. He was left completely blind, floating alone in the vastness of space, detached from his spaceship.
Relying on his training and the support of his crew, Hadfield’s body produced enough tears to dilute the antifog solution, eventually allowing him to see through the growing puddle. After consulting with Houston, he was even able to continue his work and complete his task.
Reflecting on how to stay composed in high-stress moments like these, Hadfield shared his wisdom:
[It’s] about distinguishing between perceived danger and actual danger. What is the real risk? What is the true threat that warrants fear? Not simply a vague dread of something going wrong. By doing this, you can shift your reaction, which opens up opportunities to explore, experience, and achieve things that would otherwise be impossible.
9. The Thrill: A Music Video in Space
Commander Hadfield’s time in space wasn’t only filled with intense moments. He also found time to collaborate with his son on a 'family project.' Together, they filmed Hadfield singing and playing 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie on the International Space Station’s guitar and turned it into a music video, the first ever made in space.
The guitar that was used was delivered to the ISS by the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2001. Other instruments sent to the ISS included a flute, a keyboard, a saxophone, and even an Australian didgeridoo.
Hadfield shared David Bowie’s response to the video, saying:
He called it the most emotional version of the song ever made, which took me by surprise. I believe, for him, it was deeply meaningful—knowing his time was limited. He had written the song when he was still young, in his late teens or early twenties, long before humanity had even set foot on the Moon.
He had always dreamed of space travel—Starman, Mars, and everything else—and I think for him, it felt like a gift to have his song reimagined, with the lyrics performed in space, just a few years before his passing. To me, the most special part was that he found joy in my version of the song.
8. The Fear: Almost Drowning in Space
At a distance of around 385 kilometers (240 miles) from any ocean, lake, pond, creek, or pool, one would expect the fear of drowning to be the last thing on an astronaut's mind while aboard the International Space Station. But in July 2013, astronaut Luca Parmitano faced the very real possibility of drowning during a spacewalk when he began to feel liquid gathering at the back of his head inside his spacesuit.
Initially, he thought it was just sweat, but it quickly became clear that it wasn’t enough to explain what he was feeling. After tasting a drop of the liquid, he discovered it was metallic and chillingly cold, unlike the drinking water inside his suit.
After consulting with his team and mission control, the spacewalk was called off. But rather than rushing back to the station, Parmitano and his crew were given clear instructions for a calm and measured return.
However, the two astronauts on the spacewalk had to take separate paths to avoid their tethers getting tangled. Luca Parmitano made the journey back on his own, his helmet gradually filling with an unknown liquid.
As he made his way back to the airlock, Parmitano had to flip his body to dodge an obstacle. That movement caused the accumulating blob of water to shift into his eyes and nostrils, blinding him and making it hard to breathe. His headset then failed, and he said, “I’ve been told that I was cool as a cucumber. The truth is that I was trying to talk.”
It took Parmitano 24 minutes to get back inside and another 11 minutes to remove his suit. While waiting for the airlock to pressurize, he said:
[I] was just waiting for the [repressurization] to end, taking it one second at a time. At that point, I’m virtually isolated from a sensory point of view. I can’t hear. I can’t really see. I can’t move. Every time I moved, the water sloshed around.
Astronaut Chris Cassidy, Parmitano’s partner during the spacewalk, recalled the moment they were both in the airlock together. He said:
[The water was] sort of bouncing around his nostrils. That’s when my senses really got heightened. So I grabbed his hand, just kind of squeezing it. He and I had never talked before that this would be our hand signal if we can’t talk. It just was a natural thing. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He squeezed it back, so I knew he was okay.
Cassidy then reported, “He looks fine. He looks miserable but okay.”
Once Parmitano’s helmet was removed and the liquid cleaned off, it amounted to an estimated 1.4 liters (1.5 qt). The water had come from a malfunctioning fan pump separator. Following the incident, spacesuits have been fitted with a snorkel-like addition, allowing astronauts to breathe if their suits fill with water.
7. Joy: Smuggling Sandwiches Into Space
In the early days of NASA space missions, food lacked flavor and left many astronauts yearning for something more satisfying. One astronaut, John Young, decided to take matters into his own hands and smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard the Gemini 3 mission.
The Gemini 3 mission marked the first American two-man spaceflight, and Young couldn’t resist offering a bite of his sandwich to his fellow astronaut, Gus Grissom. The conversation was captured in the Gemini 3 transcript:
“What is it?” Grissom inquired.
“Corned beef sandwich,” Young answered.
“Where did that come from?”
“I brought it along. Let’s see how it tastes. Smells, doesn’t it?”
Grissom took a bite of Young’s sandwich but quickly stashed it away when the rye bread began falling apart as he ate. Crumbs started to fill the cabin. Young admitted that the sandwich was “a thought . . ... not a very good one.” Grissom remained optimistic, however, and said, “Pretty good, though, if it would just hold together.”
The entire exchange lasted less than a minute, but the sandwich sparked some controversy, with Young receiving criticism from the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations. They dubbed it the $30 million sandwich. NASA’s associate administrator for manned space flight, George Mueller, made the agency’s stance on unofficial sandwiches clear when he said, “We have taken steps . . ... to prevent recurrence of corned beef sandwiches in future flights.”
Despite the reprimand, corned beef sandwiches were officially added to the astronaut food menu in April 1981. It seems fitting that they first appeared during a shuttle mission commanded by Young.
6. Terror: Ballistic Landings
You might have heard of the term “controlled descent.” This refers to a gradual, flat descent to Earth that minimizes stress on the vehicle (and its pilots). It's similar to a paper airplane gliding gently downward until it lands. Controlled descent is the preferred method for landing spacecraft like the Russian Soyuz capsule, which is used to transport cosmonauts and astronauts back from the ISS.
The counterpart to a controlled descent is a ballistic reentry. This is a steep, abrupt drop back to Earth, exerting significantly more pressure on both the spacecraft and its occupants.
In the event of a ballistic reentry, the Soyuz capsule is engineered to slow down as much as possible to prevent a deadly impact. If it fails, it will crash to Earth, putting the crew’s lives at risk. If a controlled descent resembles a paper airplane, a ballistic reentry is more like a rock plummeting from the sky.
When Yi So-yeon, Korea's first astronaut, returned from her inaugural mission to the ISS with American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, they didn’t experience a controlled descent. While the exact reasons remain unclear, the capsule took a much steeper approach to Earth, landing nearly 480 kilometers (300 miles) off course in Kazakhstan.
When the three astronauts emerged from the capsule, they were met by a group of curious nomads. Yi later recalled, “The nomads were shocked when Yuri climbed out of the capsule. They probably would be, considering a fireball had just fallen from the sky, and then a white figure crawled out of it.”
Although all three astronauts were largely unscathed, the danger they faced was very real. Reflecting on the high g-force descent and landing, Yi admitted, “I thought that this might be how I die.”
5. Joy: Peeing On The Whole World
During John Glenn’s five-hour mission into space (a stark contrast to earlier US missions that lasted no more than 15 minutes), he was trained to report everything he saw. He remarked on constellations, the boundless void, and his own sensations in zero gravity, as one might expect. But he also shared his thoughts on the unexpected.
During his groundbreaking flight aboard the Mercury spacecraft, he radioed back to Earth saying:
This is Friendship Seven. I’ll try to describe what I’m seeing here. I am surrounded by a mass of tiny particles, glowing brightly as if they are luminescent. I’ve never seen anything like it. They form small rounds and seem to pass by the capsule, resembling little stars. A whole shower of them is passing by.
They swirl around the capsule, moving in front of the window, all brilliantly illuminated. They’re spaced about [2.1 or 2.4 meters (7 or 8 ft)] apart, and I can see them all beneath me too.
Glenn called these particles “fireflies.” Future missions were tasked specifically with capturing images and identifying these “fireflies.”
On a subsequent Mercury flight, astronaut Scott Carpenter concluded that the cause of the phenomenon was fragments of frost escaping the spacecraft, catching the sunlight. A beautiful yet simple mystery was solved. Still, the topic of fireflies resurfaced during one of the final Mercury missions.
Astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra reflected on the origin of the fireflies: “As I mentioned earlier, they came from water released during the heat exchange that cooled our spacesuits. Another source was urine. I often joke, ‘We peed all over the world.’”
Schirra and his fellow astronaut snapped several photos of their own urine fireflies. Schirra explained, “We kept a log for each shot—urine drops at sunrise, urine drops at sunset, and so on. When the photos were developed at the cape, they turned out beautifully, and I ordered a set of prints.”
Upon returning to Earth, the urine drop photos were mixed in with other images of celestial bodies. During a debriefing following the mission, Dr. Jocelyn Gill inquired about the photos, asking, “Wally, what constellation is this?”
“Jocelyn,” Schirra replied, “That’s the constellation Urion.”
4. Terror: Exposure To Toxic Gas
What had seemed unachievable when the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union started in the 1950s became a reality in 1975: The two global powers cooperated, rather than competing, for a joint space mission.
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project aimed to demonstrate that two spacecraft with distinct designs could successfully dock in space using a specially developed docking module. The mission was successful and marked a hopeful moment for the future of humanity.
After the spacecraft meeting, which included exchanging gifts in space, the crews from the two countries parted ways. It was during the return to Earth that the US crew encountered a frightening crisis.
At approximately 7,000 meters (23,000 ft) during their descent, the cabin started to fill with a yellowish-brown gas, which could have been the deadly nitrogen tetroxide used for rocket maneuvers.
Astronaut Deke Slayton downplayed the situation by saying, 'We picked up a little smoke on the way, and we were coughing and hacking pretty good in there.' However, the exposure lasted 9 to 11 minutes, which was long enough for astronaut Vance Brand to lose consciousness.
Upon landing, the crew swiftly grabbed their oxygen masks. Brand, initially unconscious, regained consciousness after his mask was adjusted. The crew was rescued and received medical attention.
While there were no lasting effects, the crew experienced temporary breathing issues. Despite the panic at the mission's end, it was ultimately a successful collaboration between two long-time rivals. Another joint mission didn’t occur until the Shuttle-Mir program 20 years later.
3. Joy: The Cupola Observational Module
The Cupola Observational Module is a compact room aboard the ISS. Its primary purpose is described as 'for observing operations outside the station, such as robotic activities, vehicle approaches, and spacewalks.'
However, it is more widely known for offering a stunning view that Chris Hadfield called 'a self-propelled art gallery of fantastic changing beauty that is the world itself.' Astronauts and cosmonauts from all over the world have been captivated by the breathtaking sight of our planet.
Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli shared his experience in the cupola, saying:
I felt as though I were a scientist peering through a microscope, capturing images of a small rotating sphere below me, discovering details on a microscopic level. But when I looked at the images, I realized those 'microscopic' things were actually 20 kilometers (12.4 mi) in diameter.
Alan Shepard, the first American in space, described a sensation often experienced in the cupola, though he had a different window to gaze through. He said:
Instead of a search driven by intellect, I experienced a deep, instinctive sense that something had changed. This realization struck me as I gazed upon Earth—this blue-and-white orb floating in space, orbiting the Sun. I witnessed the Sun setting against the vast, velvety blackness of the cosmos. And in that moment, I understood that there was a purposeful flow of energy, time, and space in the universe—something far beyond human comprehension. It was a nonrational understanding, a profound shift from anything I had ever experienced before.
The universe seemed to hold more than just the random, chaotic motion of molecules. During my return journey, looking through the vast expanse of space—[386,000 kilometers (240,000 mi)]—toward the stars and the planet I had once called home, I felt an overwhelming sense that the universe was intelligent, loving, and harmonious.
2. Terror: Stranded In Siberia
Following his groundbreaking spacewalk, the first of its kind, Alexei Leonov came close to death. His spacesuit had inflated unexpectedly due to the vacuum of space, making it almost impossible for him to return to his spacecraft. The only way to fit back into the airlock was for him to bleed oxygen from his suit into the void of space. He managed to survive.
When Alexei Leonov and his crewmate, Pavel (Pasha) Belyayev, descended to Earth, their automatic guidance system failed. The astronauts were forced to manually pilot their spacecraft and choose their landing location.
During their descent, they once again faced imminent danger as their landing module was still tethered to the orbital module by a communication cable. This caused the modules to spin uncontrollably, subjecting them to extreme g-forces that burst blood vessels in Leonov's eyes.
The failure led them to veer drastically off course. Leonov had intended to land near Perm, but they ended up 2,000 kilometers (1,245 mi) further, deep in the remote Siberian wilderness.
Leonov described the harrowing experience:
We were acutely aware that the taiga where we had landed was home to bears and wolves. It was spring, the mating season, when both animals are most aggressive. We had only one pistol aboard, but we had plenty of ammunition. As darkness fell, the trees began to crack with the drop in temperature—a sound I had grown up with—and the wind started to howl.
That first night, the temperatures dropped to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 °F). Leonov continued his story:
The fading light made it clear we wouldn’t be rescued that night. We would have to survive on our own. As darkness enveloped us, the temperature plummeted quickly. The sweat that had soaked my spacesuit while reentering the capsule after my spacewalk was now sloshing around in my boots, rising up to my knees. It was starting to cool me down. I knew that if we didn’t get rid of the moisture, we were both at risk of frostbite.
The two men stripped off their clothing to remove the moisture and dismantled their spacesuits. While the inner layers were soft and flexible, the outer ones had stiffened, making them impossible to wear. With no other shelter available, they took refuge in the crashed capsule, which had a large hole where the hatch should have been.
The two men endured two nights in the harsh cold of the wilderness before being rescued. Although they didn’t face immediate danger from predators, wolves and bears posed a significant threat, leading the men to recommend that future cosmonauts be equipped with more powerful firearms in case they needed to survive a similar wilderness crash landing.
1. Joy: Space Darts And Hide-And-Seek
To launch an item into Earth’s orbit costs approximately $4,500 per kilogram ($10,000/lb). As a result, luxury goods and entertainment options are limited aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts, however, often find creative ways to entertain themselves.
Hide-and-seek is a fun game that doesn’t require any new supplies from Earth. While you might assume that there aren't many hiding spots aboard the space station, the ISS is slightly larger than a football field and only 18.6 meters (61 ft) shorter than Star Trek’s USS Enterprise.
Another fun activity created on the ISS is space darts. Since typical high-speed darts wouldn’t work in space, astronaut Chris Hadfield designed a modified version. Using a battery for weight, Velcro, zip ties, and a paper feather (like an arrow), he created a slow-moving dart that could stick to a target. This led to the creation of zero-gravity darts, a game now enjoyed by astronauts.
