A Japanese astronaut has sparked hilarity back on Earth after he claimed to have grown 9cm in space, making him worried he would not squeeze into the capsule home.
Norishige Kanai, who is aboard the International Space Station, tweeted: “We had our bodies measured after reaching space, and wow, wow, wow, I had actually grown by as much as 9 centimeters!”
“I have grown like a plant in just three weeks,” he said, adding that he had not experienced a growth spurt like it since high school.
Photo: Reuters
“I’m a bit worried whether I’ll fit in the Soyuz seat when I go back,” he said, prompting tens of thousands of reactions on social media.
One Japanese Twitter user said: “Can somebody please take me to space? I want to grow taller (sobbing).”
“Mr Kanai, I envy you. I wonder if I could have had a different life if I were 10 centimeters taller?” another user tweeted.
Standing 1.8m tall on Earth, Kanai is already considerably taller than the average Japanese man, who is 1.71m in height, according to official statistics.
Astronauts’ spines can extend in the zero-gravity environment of space, making them slightly taller. This returns to normal when they return to Earth.
However, Kanai remeasured himself after a Russian colleague told him a 9cm growth spurt was unlikely and had to correct his tall tale after finding he had only grown by 2cm.
He later tweeted apologies for what he described as “fake news.”
“I’m a bit relieved as I’ll probably fit into the Soyuz back home,” he said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
RSS