Astronaut James Newman '78:

What were the biggest surprises of living ten days in zero-gravity?

It took me days to learn that I had to restrain myself before attempting even the slightest activity. The force of tapping your fingers on a computer keyboard is enough to make you float away; I had to hook my thumbs below the counter and lock my feet into footstraps if I wanted to type anything. Of course, the challenges of going to the toilet have been overcome, but that is still the most difficult function to perform in zero-gravity.

Inside the shuttle our voices sounded normal, but during the space walk we were inside space suits that were depressurized to a third of an atmosphere. Voices sound funny at that low density. It's very difficult to whistle at 4.3 pounds per square inch. But I'll tell you, the absolute freedom I felt during that space walk is something no training could have prepared me for. The water tanks we practiced in on the ground are still affected by gravity.

We had a pretty good sense of what the earth would look like from 130 miles up, but I had no idea how beautiful it would be, looking out at 1,500 miles of the earth's surface through different layers of clouds, picking out the mountain ranges and shorelines. At night, I could tell what countries we were flying over by the patterns of lights coming from the cities. The lighting shows every night were spectacular. That first evening I couldn't bring myself to go to bed on time, so I got out my favorite tape and a Walkman, and went up to the flight deck. Floating upside down, stretched over the commander and pilot's seats, I put my head up to the window, listened to my music, and watched the earth go by. During the mission I didn't sleep as much as I usually do, but that's only because I spent too much time looking out the window when I should have been in bed.

In February, JamesNewman '78, Dartmouth'sfirst graduate in space,returned to Hanover to meetwith students and describe hisexperiences aboard the spaceshuttle Discovery.

Newman (left) finds it hard to whistle in space.