Crowd Listens To Astronaut Speak

A group of about 100 people had an out-of-this-world experience in Bristol Borough Monday evening.

NASA astronaut Capt. Daniel W. Bursch, a U.S. Navy veteran, spoke the crowd at the Bristol Riverside Theatre as part of the ongoing NASA @ My Library initiative.

Bursch had four flights to space, including a roughly six month stay on the International Space Station with a fellow American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. He told tales of traveling to space, living with the two other people in the station, and the journey home aboard one of the space shuttles.

On a large screen behind him, Bursch showed images of the United States and other parts of the world, including Mt. Everest, that were taken while moving thousands of miles per an hour on the space station.

One highlight for the gathered crowd was that Bursch explained the process of preparing and taking part in a spacewalk.

He answered questions from the crowd and explained what the crew ate (freeze-dried and canned food), how they slept (stretched out in a floating bag), and how they went to the bathroom (the toilet uses a vacuum instead of water.)

“It’s important to follow directions,” Bursch said of following the instructions for using the special toilet.

Upon returning to Earth, Bursch said he lost bone density from being in space and had to exercise to gain it back. Another issue once he returned from his space station stay was regaining his balance, which caused problems for a couple of weeks.