Last year NASA astronaut Frank Rubio set a new US record by becoming the first American to spend more than a year of his life in space.

Rubio returned to Earth on 27 September, 2023 after racking up a grand total of 371 days in space.

Spending so long unshackled from the mortal confines of our planet resulted in a number of changes to his body, as time in space changes a person in more ways than one.

When the 48-year-old landed in Kazakhstan, he said that he was to be assessed by a medical team and he’d need a fair bit of time to re-adjust to Earth’s gravity, which sounds pretty reasonable.

Rubio was actually supposed to be on his mission for six months, but the time he spent in space got doubled and it made him a prime example of what the effects of living gravity-free for such a long time looks like.

We Earthbound people with no access to spaceships might not even be able to comprehend what this could be like.

The lack of gravity causes a decrease in muscle mass and even bone loss within just the first couple months of a mission – let alone the year Rubio spent up there.

At the time of the NASA astronaut’s landing, Dr Jennifer Fogarty, chief scientific officer at Baylor College of Medicine’s Translational Research Institute for Space Health, told ABC News: “How do you coordinate movement like walking, which you haven’t done for a long period of time, and then the idea of balance?

“When you put those two together, it can kind of create a little bit of a precarious situation and something that’s very well-monitored with the crew members when they land on Earth.”

Once back on Earth, he noticed quite the change. (APHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images)

The expert also added that the longer the time in space goes on for, the longer the time it takes for the astronaut to reacclimatise when they get back.

Plus when living in space, an astronaut’s blood flow can be heavily affected.

This can cause symptoms including blurred vision or eye swelling due to something known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome.

According to the co-director of the Center for Aerospace Physiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Dr Michael Decker, our veins have handy-dandy valves in them to make sure ‘blood doesn’t flow backwards when we stand up’.

And being enclosed in a weightless room for a long period of time will certainly impact the body’s blood flow.

He added: “Some of this increased intracranial pressure can actually impact the eye and lead to visual impairment.

“Sometimes when astronauts land, that visual impairment does not necessarily resolve.”

He took some time to get back to his best. (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

Rubio’s mental and physical health will have been assessed while he was in space and in January, he explained that he’d spent the past four months ‘reincorporating [himself] back into Earth’.

“You adapt incredibly quickly to being in space, but then unfortunately, the readaptation process back to earth can sometimes be a little bit longer and more difficult.” he told TIME.

“And that’s just, I think, because the forces of gravity and the forces at play here on Earth tend to have a stronger effect on your body. So it takes two to three months to get yourself back to where you were pre-flight. I’m feeling pretty normal.”

He added: “At this point, I feel like I’m back to 90-95%. So lots of exercise, lots of testing, and science.”

While Rubio holds the American record, if you’re wondering who the all time record holder for being in space is, that goes to Valeri Polyakov who between 1994 and 1995 spent a whopping 437 continuous days in orbit.

You can only imagine what sort of things are hurtling through an astronaut’s head while they’ve got a birds eye view of our planet from space – but I reckon ‘that’s a long way down’ might be a leading contender.

But for former NASA space cadet Ron Garan, 62, there was only one thing on his mind…the ‘sobering realisation’ that us Earthlings are ‘living a lie’.

And no, it’s not that the Flat Earth brigade were right all along. In fact, it’s something much more compelling.

Just put yourself in Garan’s spacesuit for a second and imagine what he was thinking while he had an uninterrupted view of our globe and experienced what’s known as the ‘overview effect’.

For those who don’t know, this term described the cognitive shift that a lot of astronauts feel when taking a look at Earth while floating in space – which researchers compare to a ‘state of awe with self-transcendent qualities’.

This phenomena may trigger an ‘unexpected and overwhelming emotion’ for those who are brave enough to clamour onboard a rocket, which to be honest, shouldn’t be that surprising.

I mean, they’re seeing something which only a mere few mortals will ever get too – I’m pretty sure I’d be in my feels too.

That’s exactly the experience Garan had while spending 178 days in space, travelling more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits throughout his career at NASA.

With the unique perspective on the world he got from his time on the International Space Station (ISS), he drew some very interesting conclusions about our way of life while looking out of the window.

Speaking to the Big Think, the New Yorker said that he realised the things that most humans are worried about aren’t a big deal after all – but we should be a lot more concerned about global warming, deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Discussing what he witnessed, Garan explained: “When I looked out the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi-like flashes of lightning storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch them.

“And I saw the unbelievable thinness of our planet’s atmosphere. In that moment, I was hit with the sobering realisation that that paper-thin layer keeps every living thing on our planet alive.

“I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life. I didn’t see the economy. But since our human-made systems treat everything, including the very life-support systems of our planet, as the wholly owned subsidiary of the global economy, it’s obvious from the vantage point of space that we’re living a lie.”

It sounds like Elon Musk needs to get that SpaceX rocket sorted pronto so we can all have a look at this for ourselves.

“It’s obvious from the vantage point of space that we’re living a lie,” Garan continued. “We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy. That’s when we’re going to continue our evolutionary process.

“There’s this light bulb that pops up where they realise how interconnected and interdependent we all are.”

The 62-year-old returned to Earth with a new perspective after experiencing the ‘overview effect’ (Erika Goldring/Getty Images)

Since his feet have been back on solid ground, Garan has passionately championed looking after our planet while encouraging people to put each other before the rat race that is modern life.

“We’re not going to have peace on Earth until we recognise the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality,” Garan added – and he’s not the only one with this thought process either.

Astronaut Michael Collins who flew the Apollo 11 said he was stunned at how ‘fragile’ and ‘tiny’ Earth looked, while Apollo 14’s Edgar Mitchell said the experience gave him an ‘explosion of awareness’.

The two astronauts that have been stranded in space for over six months are surviving on food that isn’t what you’d call fresh.

NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams, 59, and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, 61, originally embarked on an eight-day mission on June 5 this year.

But after landing on the International Space Station (ISS), technical faults with their spacecraft prevented them from returning, and the pair have been in orbit ever since.

Luckily, a SpaceX Dragon capsule is set to be sent up early next year to bring them home, though this is still in a number of months.

Those of us down on Earth have been reacting to the many updates provided by NASA on the pair’s situation. People began to worry about Suni in particular, as some believed she was rapidly losing weight.

But in a video released on 12 November, she revealed: “I’m actually right at the same amount.”

Adding that there’s such a thing as a ‘fluid shift’, making ‘heads look a little bigger’, she explained: “But Butch and I have been up here for a number of months, we’ve been on the workout gear. We’ve got a bike, we got a treadmill and we got weightlifting equipment.

“And I could definitely tell that weightlifting – which is not something I do all the time – has definitely changed me. My thighs are a little bigger, my but is a little bigger, we do a lot of squats,” she said.

NASA further clarified to LADbible: “All NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station undergo routine medical evaluations, have dedicated flight surgeons monitoring them, and are in good health.”

Scheduled to be rescued in February, the astronaut’s food supplies may well be a concern. They started by munching on things such as fresh fruit, vegetables, roast chicken, pizza, and shrimp cocktails, but now the pair are eating breakfast cereal with powdered milk. Other alternatives include dehydrated casseroles and freeze-dried soup.

As for water, there’s thankfully a supply of it – but where does it come from?

Well, the ISS has a 530 gallon emergency tank, which apparently recycles the astronauts’ urine and sweat into fresh water, ensuring minimal waste. Yummy.

Though both look like they have lost weight, it is thought that the changes in appearance has been caused by the impact of microgravity during a long space stay.

NASA officials monitor the food supplies onboard and the health of astronauts constantly, as a US space agency specialist revealed to the Daily Star: “There’s fresh fruit at first.

“But as the months continue that goes away.

“Their fruits and vegetables are packaged or freeze-dried.”

The pair of astronauts have been stuck in space since June. (MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)

It is said that the International Space Station has 3.8lbs of food per astronaut per day, with reserves to cover any unexpected longer stays. This keeps astronauts healthy and with enough nutrition to survive longer missions.

“Nothing is left to chance and that includes their food,” the specialist explained.

“To be accurate it should be very clear that any any weight loss is not due to a lack of provisions on the ISS.

“There is plenty of food even for an extended mission,” they clarified.

LADbible has reached out to NASA for comment.

The only person who might know how two stranded astronauts are feeling has provided some insight into the situation.

Starliner’s test pilots Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, 61, and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams, 58, embarked on what was supposed to be an eight-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) on 5 June.

But when thruster and leak problems hit Boeing’s Starliner capsule after lift-off, it meant that they wouldn’t return as scheduled.

On 8 August, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, said that the pair’s most likely choice could be to hop on Space X Crew-9’s return flight in February 2025, while the Starliner will be undocked and returned back to Earth by itself.

“We have been working with SpaceX to ensure they are ready to respond with Crew-9 as a contingency,” Stich said.

“We have not formally committed to this path, but we wanted to ensure we had all that flexibility in place.

“Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open.

“I think Butch and Suni are ready to do whatever we need them to do.”

Meanwhile, ex-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly – who’d spent almost a year on the ISS from 2015 to 2016 – reckons that the pair are doing just fine up there.

“I knew them before they were astronauts and we were all test pilots in the Navy,” he told PEOPLE. “They’ll be able to handle it.”

Speaking about Williams, he added: “She is a great spirit of a person and I’m sure she’s not minding being up there for more time.

“She’s very enthusiastic about most things.”

Kelly’s career in space spanned from 1996 to 2016 when he retired – he knows exactly what it’s like to spend so long in space.

“I describe it like a large four-bedroom house but filled with a lot of stuff,” Kelly said.

“I always felt like I needed more space, not for me but an extra room for the storage situation.”

Ex-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly knows better than most how they’re probably feeling (Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

On how to keep buys, he explained: “You have some personal stuff, you sleep there, you have some computers and things.”

However, he says the hardest thing about being up there is not to get the ‘breeze on your face’ from the natural outdoors.

“The air is kind of stale inside and it can have a bit of odor depending on where you’re at,” Kelly added.

Thankfully, the two-person crew will have plenty of food supplies if they were to stay up in space for that long.

NASA said their plan was for the two to return on a SpaceX car,

However, there could be another issue potentially facing Williams and Wilmore as NASA also revealed that the spacesuits they’d be wearing for their journey were incompatible with the other aircraft.