'Great to be back,' says exhausted astronaut

January 23, 1997
Web posted at: 1:30 a.m. EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- Exhausted after 128 days in space, astronaut John Blaha Wednesday began a rocky adjustment to life on Earth. (799K/36 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

"I'm absolutely stunned at the condition I'm in right now," Blaha said in a televised interview with NASA public affairs. "I can't believe it. I feel very wobbly."

Blaha rode back to Earth Wednesday morning on the space shuttle's Atlantis in a cushioned reclining seat. His chest was wired with medical sensors so doctors could monitor his health as gravity gripped his body for the first time in four months.

Blaha said he was glad to be back with his family. During his voyage he had commented on how greatly he missed Brenda, his wife of 30 years. She was with him Wednesday, holding his hand. "I don't have any plans other than private time with Brenda," he said.

He said the voyage was psychologically and physically demanding. "The first month I was in orbit I had to make a transition," he said. "I kept longing for things that I loved here, and I finally decided I had to forget them." (587K/27 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

Unlike astronauts Shannon Lucid and Norm Thagard, who insisted on walking off the shuttle after their long Mir missions, Blaha took the advice of NASA doctors and was carried off.

"He had tried to get up by himself, said he weighed a thousand pounds and didn't want to stand," said Dave Leestma, NASA's director of flight crew operations.

Blaha was lifted on a stretcher into a bus-like vehicle, where his family was waiting to greet him.

"He looked fine and he said 'Am I ever glad to see you'," Brenda Blaha said. "I went and pecked him on the cheek and he said 'I want a real kiss and real hug.' It was great."

The veteran of five shuttle flights said he would not embark on another long duration space mission because he could not bear to be separated again from his wife. (281K/13 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

"It feels great to be back," Blaha replied after the shuttle touched down.

 

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Related stories:

• Atlantis brings astronaut home from Mir - January 22, 1997
• Shuttle Atlantis pulls away from Mir - January 19, 1997
• Atlantis prepares to undock from Mir - January 19, 1997
• Contact: Atlantis docks with Mir - January 15, 1997
• Atlantis blasts off for Mir rendezvous - January 12, 1997
• Atlantis slated for pre-dawn liftoff - January 11, 1997
• Atlantis undocks from fourth Mir docking - September 23, 1996

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