Doctor Having ‘Time Of His Life’ Aboard Mir But American Astronaut Finds Current Events Hard To Come By

NASA astronaut Norm Thagard, a third of the way through a planned three-month stay aboard Russia’s Mir space station, said Wednesday he finds it difficult keeping up with news events in his homeland but relaxes with his two hosts by watching popular films like “Pretty Woman.”

“I’m having the time of my life, really, but on the other hand I’m in an isolated environment for three months,” the 51-year-old physicianengineer remarked during a 20-minute space-to-ground news conference. “I basically get no American news at all.”

Expressing no curiosity over baseball, the O.J. Simpson trial or even the Republican “Contract With America,” Thagard said he depends on brief “snatches” from a Russian news agency and occasional contacts with ground-based amateur radio operators in the United States for news of his homeland.

Mir commander Vladimir Dezhurov, flight engineer Gennady Strekalov and Thagard spoke with reporters as part of Russia’s Cosmonauts Day.

The three men said they are pleased with the pace of their research activities. Thagard described a daily routine that includes regular exercise as well as work. To relax, the men listen to classical, jazz and rock music, speak occasionally to family members and watch popular American and Russian movies.

A veteran of four previous space flights, Thagard said he’s been struck by two experiences on the longest space journey for a U.S. astronaut in two decades - his longer than anticipated adaptation to weightlessness and the difficulties of housekeeping.

“It’s clear to me with my longest previous flight being eight days that I never fully adapted to ‘Zero-G.’ At this point, I feel completely adapted.”

Thagard said he’s had such a hard time finding space to store urine samples for a U.S. medical test and disposing of trash that he’s compiling a memo for the space station design team of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.