ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO
SOURCE: San Antonio Express-News
MIR ASTRONAUT JOHN BLAHA says his experience aboard the Russian space station proves that illnesses and wounds take longer to heal in space.
The human body heals slowly in space, which could mean problems for long-duration missions.
That's what NASA astronaut John Blaha found out aboard the Russian space station Mir, he said in a phone interview from the Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake City, Texas.
Blaha, a San Antonian who returned to Earth Jan. 22, spent 118 days on Mir as the third of five Americans to work with Russian cosmonauts.
In addition to experimenting with growing wheat and crystals in space, Blaha took experimental injections of a disease. His blood and urine were examined regularly to measure body response. Initial findings indicate slow healing.
``Without a doubt, the human immune system does not work as well in space as it does on Earth,'' the 54-year-old astronaut said.
Personal mishaps also showed that healing is slower in space, he said. He suffered a cut while changing a light bulb in a flashlight. Healing ``seemed like slow motion,'' he said.
Blaha also broke a fingernail one month into his mission. It had not grown back fully by the time he landed three months later. His hair also grew slowly, Blaha said. He needed only two hair cuts.
What astronauts are learning from Mir could be applied in future to a live-aboard international space station, he said.
``A lot of exercise protocols, medical control that (the Russians) do in flight are very well understood and well developed,'' Blaha said. With this knowledge, ``we don't have to reinvent those wheels.''
In the meantime, Blaha said he continues to adjust to gravity.
Within five days after he landed, he was getting back to normal. Physical exams showed he had not lost muscle strength. His eyesight and hearing had not changed.
Blaha said he already has been scheduled for public appearances, and he can do ordinary tasks. He can drive, and he rode on a float in a Houston parade last weekend.
However, Blaha said he still is adjusting. He's working daily with a therapist and will be seeing a doctor for the next two months as part of a post-flight routine.
While he undergoes therapy, he also will go through debriefings.
He's also working fewer hours so he can spend extra time with his wife, Brenda, their three grown children and a grandchild.
He will also reflect on his cultural isolation. Blaha trained in Russia for more than two years. He spoke Russian, ate Russian food, experienced the culture and made friends there.
``Long-duration spaceflight is very different from a shuttle flight'' with a U.S. crew, he said. Before Mir, Blaha had logged 33 days aboard four space shuttles. ``I thought it would be the same.''
Part of it was psychological, he said. ``An American flying on a Russian spacecraft with two Russians is a big cultural difference.''
Blaha replaced astronaut Shannon Lucid, who had been on Mir for six months. As the shuttle slowly backed away, Blaha said he ``had to cut the bonds a little bit.''
For the next five or six weeks, he felt depressed and culturally isolated, ``even though I had been living in Star City (the Russian training center) for one and a half years.''
His wife was with him in Star City, and he thought of her while he was on Mir.
In a case of apple pie a la borscht, he told of feeling like a stranger in a strange land.
``I will always understand and try to help a foreigner living in this country,'' Blaha said. After he adjusted, he said, ``I enjoyed being there,'' talking by ham radio to people in Argentina, Chile, India, Afghanistan, France, Italy, Russia and the United States.
As Russia and the United States discuss cooperation on an international space station, Blaha said he wouldn't mind going to a space station or flying on another space shuttle mission, even to visit Mir.
But another stay on Mir? ``No.'' The problem was not Mir itself, but the intensive training he needed to get there, 15 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
``It's the whole commitment that I would not want to repeat,'' he said. ``I've been burning the midnight oil for two and a half years.''
Through his brother, Robert, Blaha sent messages from Mir that appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 linesby CNB