Astronauts tall up to 9cm after only 3 weeks living on the space station

A Japanese astronaut said he was 9cm taller since he lived on the International Space Station (ISS) three weeks ago.

wrote on social media that he was worried that he would not sit on the seat of Soyuz shuttle to return to Earth in June after increasing the height by 9cm after 3 weeks.

Astronaut Norishige Kanai.

'Good morning, I have something to announce today: I have grown 9cm tall since working on aerospace. I have grown like a tree in the past 3 weeks. This has never happened since I was in high school and was a little worried that I would not sit in a seat on the Soyuz train , 'Kanai said.

The astronauts normally have a height of 2 to 5cm when living on space because the lack of gravity causes the joints to stretch. Their height sometimes returns to normal after returning to live on earth.

Currently there are seats for people 190cm tall and weighs 95kg, the old version of this type is limited to astronauts 182cm tall and weighs 85kg.

This is the mission on Mr. Kanai's first ISS station. He has been here since December 2017, along with American astronaut Scott Tingle and Anton Shkaprerov from Russia.