NASA astronaut chats with Tom Cruise; gives heads up before the actor's ISS visit

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise will soon be travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) to shoot a movie, which has big players such as NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX as collaborators. As part of the preparations, Cruise had interviewed NASA astronaut Victor Glover for a podcast named "The Body in Space" wherein he cleared all his doubts concerning space travel. Originally recorded in November 2021, the interview was published by NASA on January 28, 2022. Here are the key highlights of Cruise's conversations with Glover ahead of the latter's visit to the space station. 

Glover reveals the most physically demanding tasks in space

When asked what are the most physically demanding tasks before, during and after spaceflight, Glover said that training for and executing spacewalks, along with trying to get comfortable sleep in space is the most challenging. He said that since astronauts do a lot of outdoor training, they have to learn to be able to sleep outdoors and develop healthy coping strategies for different forms of stressors. "And then obviously then getting to space and being able to fall asleep and get the important rest that you need to accomplish your workday. That's one, I think, is a very physically demanding aspect of training and living in space", he added as per NASA's transcript. 

Cruise gets warned about the smell he would encounter in ISS

The Top Gun star also asked questions about the smell of air inside the ISS modules, to which Glover responded, "the overall space station, it smells very much like a factory". The NASA astronaut revealed that the module consisting the lifting, the strength training equipment and the bathroom is the most odoriferous one. "When you first get to space station is when you notice the smell the strongest because you kind of get saturated and you get used to it after, but it was an interesting combination", Glover said. Moreover, the antiseptic and germ-free quality also adds a variation in the smell that one would encounter inside the ISS.

'I had to get used to lying down again': Glover on returning to Earth

Since Cruise would make his return after spending several days in space, he asked if the gravity had any effects on his sleep or physicality to which Glover replied, "Coming back to Earth, I had to get used to lying down again, and then especially sitting up". The astronaut further said that his midsection, after returning to Earth, had gotten very weak as compared to his state before the flight. "But overall, the sleep quality, I think my sleep, once I was asleep, was very much in space like it was on Earth. And that was nice, because sleep is very important to me", Glover added. It is worth noting that Glover was the first astronaut of colour to visit the ISS for an extended mission in a SpaceX Dragon capsule in November 2020. 

Image: Twitter/@SpaceStation/Instagram/@TomCruise