70-year-old NASA astronaut reveals bizarre and unexpected side effect on his body while being in space

Spending a significant amount of time in space can have detrimental side effects on the human body.

When astronauts return back down to Earth, they are monitored by a medical team to make sure they transition back to life with gravity as smoothly as possible.

And one particular NASA astronaut has lifted the lid on his own experience, describing a bizarre and unexpected side effect he noticed while being in space.

NASA’s oldest astronaut Don Pettit arrived back on solid ground on his 70th birthday last month.

This is after he had spent a whopping 220 consecutive days in orbit and now, Pettit has spoken out about what he experienced.

Talking to reporters at the Johnson Space Center, he said: “It’s good to be back on planet Earth.

The NASA astronaut described the side effects he experienced in space (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

“As much as I love exploring space, going into the frontier, and making observations, you do reach a time when it's time to come home.”

In total throughout his career, Pettit has spent 590 days in space, with the third most amount of time of any NASA astronaut.

And now back home, he described an interesting side effect he noticed while being in space.

Pettit went on to say: “I’ve got a few creaks and groans in my body, but basically I feel the same as I did 20 years ago, and coming back to gravity is provocative.”

He continued: “A week ago, I was on station, and I was doing really heavy squats, I was doing deadlifts, I could float around with the greatest of ease, even though I had no trapeze.

Don Pettit landed back on Earth on his 70th birthday (Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

“I was at the peak of my game. And then you come back to Earth, and it’s like, God, I can’t even get up from the floor anymore. It's humbling. But it isn't about the large muscle groups. It’s about the little, tiny muscles that everybody forgets about because they’re just there and they work.

“When you’re in weightlessness, these muscles don’t work anymore. And they take a six-month vacation until you come back to Earth. And now, all of a sudden, they start groaning and talking to you, and it takes a while to get all these little muscles tuned back up to being an Earthling.

“I love being in space. When you’re sleeping, you’re just floating, and your body, all those little aches and pains heal up. You feel like you’re 30 years old again and free of pain, free of everything. So I love being on orbit. It’s a great place to be for me and my physiology.”