Mir’s New Role: Workout Station
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The cosmonauts aboard Russia’s space station will probably feel like slugs when Jerry Linenger arrives.
The raring-to-go 41-year-old astronaut is a marathon runner and triathlete who plans to put in hard time on the exercise equipment aboard Mir and will be packing a supply of nutritious Power Bars--â€no pretzels, no M&Ms;, anything like thatâ€--when he gets to the space station tonight.
“They’ve got two treadmills, so I should be able to keep busy,†he said from space shuttle Atlantis.
Linenger will spend 4 1/2 months aboard Mir, replacing NASA astronaut John Blaha, who has been in orbit since September. Blaha’s two Russian crew mates are five months into a six-month mission.
Linenger will be, by far, the most athletic astronaut ever to spend a long time in space, and doctors can’t wait to see how he fares. Astronauts lose bone and muscle in weightlessness, a problem NASA is trying to overcome or at least manage through regular orbital exercise.
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