00:00This is Chris Hadfield, a seasoned astronaut. In 2001, he was trying his first ever spacewalk.
00:08Chris was floating high above the Earth in the void. Nothing but the sound of his own breath
00:13and the silence of space. He saw the Earth beneath, and the sight was incredible.
00:19He couldn't feel it physically, but he was actually moving at a speed of almost 18,000
00:24miles per hour. Chris was watching the Earth spin below him, a sight that he later described
00:30as a self-propelled art gallery. Then, suddenly, everything changed. As Hadfield was tethered to
00:36the ISS, something stung his eye. In just a second, he was blinded in one eye. It turns out it was a
00:44drop of the anti-fog solution used on his helmet. A tiny mix of oil and soap, something that's
00:50usually harmless. But there, in zero gravity, it turned sinister. When the solution irritated
00:57his eye, it made him tear up. Normally, tears help us clean up the eyes if something bad gets
01:02into them. But in space, tears can't just roll down your face. They hover, stuck in place.
01:08This created a bigger floating drop of stinging liquid that impaired his vision. And in a cruel
01:14twist of fate, physics, it seeped across his nose, blinding his other eye. That was a
01:20nightmare. Chris was completely blind and floating alone in open space. He was only holding on to
01:27the International Space Station with one hand. But the astronaut didn't panic. He drew on years
01:33of meticulous, relentless training, the endless hours astronauts spend simulating worst-case scenarios.
01:40Astronauts are hardwired to react to such situations without fear. They get exposed to
01:45worst-case scenarios repeatedly and recalibrate the reaction, from paralyzing fear to calm acceptance.
01:52He even mentioned that it was like training himself to walk through a spiderweb without flinching.
01:58For Chris, that training allowed him to stay collected even while blind in the void. So he focused on the
02:04task at hand. Despite the temporary blindness, he continued the walk as planned. Eventually,
02:10his tears dissipated and he regained his vision. After that, he successfully completed the spacewalk.
02:17And it was a lesson to NASA guys on Earth, too. Now they switched to Johnson's no more tears to
02:23prevent this stuff in the future. But some adventures in open space end up much worse.
02:29Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore also were seasoned NASA astronauts. On June 5th, 2024, they launched into
02:37space. It was supposed to be a quick 8-day mission to the ISS, a test flight for Boeing's Starliner
02:43spacecraft. But things didn't go according to plan. Shortly after liftoff, the mission hit turbulence.
02:50Not physical turbulence, like in planes, but a fountain of technical issues. First, there were
02:56sudden helium leaks. They happened in the propulsion system. Helium is super important in spaceflight.
03:02It ensures a steady flow of propellants to the engine. The engineers are still not sure what
03:08exactly happened that caused those leaks. But it was bad. They can lead to propulsion inefficiencies
03:14or even failures. Then several thrusters failed to work properly. Five of 28 thrusters failed.
03:22The thrusters are crucial to make sure that the spacecraft doesn't go astray during flight.
03:27And it looks like this happened due to overheating. And it sounds horrifying. But after checking
03:32everything, the mission controllers on Earth said that the spacecraft is still good to go. The systems
03:38were sufficient to continue the mission safely. Just like Chris Hadfield, these astronauts didn't
03:44panic either. They managed the situation effectively. After some troubleshooting, they safely restored
03:50functionality to four thrusters and continued flying to the ISS. On June 6th, they successfully docked at
03:57the station. But it was just the beginning of a nightmare. Now, months later, Williams and Willmore are
04:05still stuck there. The planned eight-day stint accidentally turned into an eight-month stay.
04:11They still remain aboard the ISS, not because no one wants to get them out of there, but because it's
04:16way harder than we might think. The Starliner, designed to bring them home, turned out to be
04:22unsafe for the return trip. SpaceX and Boeing decided the spacecraft would return to Earth
04:27without any humans on it. They had to investigate the issues. This also means that they'll need to
04:33make and send something else to return the poor couple back home. And it's far from idle time. They
04:39still have to work, do experiments, maintain the station, and even go on spacewalks. You just can't catch a
04:46break in space. Now, an even more horrifying situation happened to South Korea's first astronaut,
04:53Yi Soyeon. On April 19th, 2008, Yi was aboard the Soyuz TMA capsule, a type of spacecraft that can
05:01carry astronauts to and from space. And she wasn't alone there. There was a flight engineer, Yuri
05:07Malenchenko, and American Commander Peggy Whitson with her. All three of them were returning from the ISS.
05:14But as the spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere, things went wrong. The capsule took a steeper than
05:21normal trajectory. This suddenly exposed the crew to some brutal gravitational forces. The gravity was
05:27twice what they would normally feel. All of them got stuck inside the cramped weightless cabin. Loose
05:33objects turned into projectiles. They struck Yi, pressing her body against her seat. It was excruciating.
05:39And the engineer mentioned that it made her scream, a rare moment of an astronaut actually losing their
05:45cool. For a brief moment, she thought this might be how her life would end. But suddenly,
05:50the capsule thudded to Earth. Not at the plane landing site, but 300 miles off course in the remote
05:58Kazakh steps. The charred spacecraft sat smoldering in the vast, empty plains. Meanwhile, a group of nomads
06:06was passing by. When they stumbled across a fiery object falling from the sky, they were terrified.
06:12And when it fell on the ground, an astronaut crawled out of it, Yuri Malenchenko. He emerged first from
06:19the capsule. The nomads hesitated at first. They even cautiously poked the confused astronauts to make
06:25sure they were alive. As they were coming back to their senses, an entire crowd of about 50 people
06:31gathered around them. The audience was watching as the crew recovered from their fiery re-entry.
06:37Yi later joked that it felt like being a monkey in a cage. Despite the chaos, the nomads didn't
06:43hesitate to help. They dragged the crew into the shade and even went back into the tight confines of
06:49the capsule to get a satellite phone for them. But just as the astronauts were setting up the phone to
06:55call for help, a black dot appeared in the sky. The rescue aircraft. Relief washed over Yi and the
07:02others. The ordeal finally neared its end. She had to get back to the hospital as soon as possible to
07:08get checkups and treatments for her back. Yi became a national hero of South Korea. The landing might have
07:15been terrifying, but it also proved everyone's resilience. You know, after all these stories,
07:25it's not a surprise that all astronauts need to wear diapers. And that's not a joke. When Alan
07:30Shepard prepared to be the first American astronaut in 1961, he encountered a very human problem that
07:37NASA somehow overlooked. As he strapped into the tiny Freedom 7 capsule, hours of delays turned into a
07:45crisis. Shepard needed to use the bathroom. Don't ask how they could have forgotten about this stuff,
07:51but they did. When Shepard radioed his situation to mission control, NASA scientists bong. If he did
07:58it right in his suit, this could short-circuit his body monitoring cables. But after some debates,
08:04they realized it was their only option. Yep, the first American in space ended up with a wetsuit.
08:11NASA learned a valuable lesson that day. Over the decades, they created maximum absorbency garments,
08:18or basically, space diapers. They're worn under a spacesuit during critical phases,
08:23like launch, re-entry, and spacewalks. So, although it was probably cringey for him back then,
08:29that was just a reminder that even the most advanced missions must account for the most basic human needs.
08:36science. That's it for today. So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a
08:44like and share it with your friends. Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the
08:49bright side.
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