Station Crew Wobbles Through Return to Normal Gravity By Todd Halvorson Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief posted: 11:30 pm ET 22 August 2001 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Jim Voss felt like he had just run a marathon. Yuri Usachev was a bit off-balance, and Susan Helms sensed the weight of the world when normal gravity grabbed hold of her for the first time since March. And while Voss looked exhausted, all three came through their 5« month tour on the International Space Station in fairly good shape, especially considering how unsteady astronauts and cosmonauts can be after extended stays in weightlessness. "I'm pretty tired, to tell you the truth," Voss told a NASA interviewer six hours after shuttle Discovery taxied he and his crew mates to a 2:23 p.m. EDT (1823 GMT) landing Wednesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "And a little wobbly." "It's hard, of course," Usachev said, adding that he didn't feel as "stable" as he would like. Chipper Helms, meanwhile, appeared to weather best the reintroduction to Earth gravity after 167 days in space. "Physically, I'm feeling a lot better than I thought I would," she said. "I'm actually able to walk around and talk to people and do things like that. I feel a little bit off balance in the vestibular sense, but overall it's better than I expected." Like her crewmates, Helms walked off the shuttle with a helping hand from flight surgeons, but she did admit that it was tough to get up on her feet. "When I stood up for the first time, it did feel like my body weighed 500 pounds (220 kilograms) -- and that'll go away, I know." "Welcome to the One G World," Usachev added. Voss, 52, still hadn't had the old-fashioned hamburger he's been craving, perhaps because lightheadedness tends to take away any appetite. Helms, 43, had a milkshake right after she got off the shuttle and was headed off to satisfy a hankering for a salad with fresh greens. Usachev, 43 and a veteran of two lengthy tours on Russia's former space station Mir, had part of a well-done steak with "cream cheese and real cheese" on the side. "I ate just a little bit because the first couple of hours, it's just hard to eat," he said. "But in space, I missed real cheese and coffee because it's just space food (on the station)." The somewhat shaky planetary homecoming didn't keep the so-called Expedition Two crew from having a poignant and boisterous multi-family reunion about 90 minutes after landing. Usachev's wife, Vera, and his 12-year-old daughter, Evgenia, were on hand when the trio ambled into astronaut crew quarters under their own power. So were Voss' wife, Susan, and his daughter, Kristie, a 21-year old student at University of Texas in Austin. "I told my wife I missed her, and then I told my daughter -- who was crying -- that I was okay," Voss said. "I was surprised that she was a little bit emotional about my return. But I was, too." Single and without children, Helms was met by her mother and father, Pat and Dori, and the room erupted in cheers and tears as the three station crewmates hugged their families for the first time in months. "That made my heart beat fast," said Discovery mission specialist Daniel Barry. "It was just so wonderful to see them reunited with their loved ones, and the obvious emotion and good feelings that were there were just great." "It was really amazing," added Discovery mission commander Scott Horowitz. "I mean, it really struck me -- it really kind of brought home what we had just done on this mission." Launched Aug. 10, Discovery's four astronauts ferried a new resident crew to the station and then returned to Earth with Usachev, Helms and Voss in tow. More than 3.5 tons of food, clothing, research equipment and scientific experiments were delivered for new station skipper Frank Culbertson and Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin, the three of whom will remain in space until Dec. 9. Barry and fellow mission specialist Patrick Forrester also carried out two spacewalks, mounting space coolant tanks, two suitcase-sized science packages and electrical power cables outside the 17-story station. Almost two tons of carry-on luggage, surplus station gear and garbage was brought back aboard the shuttle along with Usachev, Helms and Voss. The returning station crew will jet back to Houston Thursday for the start of an extensive physical rehabilitation program. The heart, lungs and other organs typically weaken during long stays in weightlessness. Muscles atrophy from lack of use and the skeletal system withers away, resulting in a gradual but potentially serious bone loss. The inner ear generally gets out of whack, making it difficult to keep one's balance. Blood and other body fluids also pool in the head and upper torso, only to rush back down toward the feet upon atmospheric reentry -- a phenomenon that leaves many returning space travelers woozy. The physical rehab program will kick off with a calcium-enriched diet and relatively easy workouts, gradually increasing to more vigorous exercise over the course of the next two months. They'll jog in swimming pools first, and do fairly light workouts that include stretching exercises. They'll have daily massages to work soreness out of muscles that haven't been flexed in months, and then they'll ramp up to lap swimming, calisthenics, jogging and weightlifting. Barry suspects that the three will recover relatively quickly, thanks to daily workouts on the station's treadmill, exercise bike and a resistive device that enabled them to do orbital calisthenics. A medical doctor and a physical therapy specialist, Barry tested the station's health clinic equipment and found that he couldn't keep up with Usachev and his crew. "It was a little embarrassing actually, because here we are the tough guys that just came up from Earth, and there they are the weaklings, so to speak, in space, and they were just tearing up that treadmill," he said. "So I think it was obvious to me how much time and effort they have put in to staying in shape, and by their appearance coming off the orbiter, that is going to pay off big time," he said. "I think you're going to see these folks looking really healthy, and that their rehabilitation is going to go really well." "In fact, we were surprised -- some of them looked like they were doing a little better than us when we got off the vehicle today," Horowitz added. "So they're real troopers."