NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel admitted that he has a mild fear of heights despite working a job where he flies higher than almost everyone else on Earth. Feustel was sent to the International Space Station on Wednesday.
The ISS is located 250 miles above Earth.
Fear Of Heights
Feustel's stay into the ISS will be his second stint, this one being for long term. In all, it will be his third mission into space. He will live at the ISS for almost six months and will even be commander starting in June.
Feustel was joined on his journey to the ISS by NASA flight engineer Ricky Arnold and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. To get the ISS, the crew took the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft on a trip that took around 50 hours.
In a video released by NASA about five facts that people didn't know about Andrew Feustel, he admits to something an astronaut would probably not confess to saying about themselves. Feustel reveals that he has a mild fear of heights in the video, along with other facts.
It includes holding dual citizenship from the United States and Canada. He's been water skiing barefoot from a young age. Feustel also has two sons born on April 26 but two years apart, and he had two dreams in life: to become a Formula One driver and become an astronaut.
Despite his fear of heights, Feustel has spent 42 hours of his space career doing spacewalks. He has also spent 29 days in space.
Dangerous Job
While it may seem funny to joke about an astronaut being afraid of heights even though he's going up to a station 250 miles above Earth, astronauts have very dangerous jobs. Movies such as Interstellar, The Martian, and Gravity show that there are an immense amount of things that can go wrong on missions and almost kill astronauts. These may be fictional scenarios, but there are still dangers involved with space travel.
European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano almost drowned in his spacesuit in space when his helmet began to fill with water. He was doing work outside of the International Space Station when he first noticed what was happening. Eventually, the water in the helmet stopped him from being able to see or hear. The water also cut off his communications system, so he couldn't talk to the other astronauts. Although his helmet was full of water, he slowly had to make his way to the airlock.
