Questions for the commander?

Bill Shepherd shortly after returning from 4 1/2 months aboard Alpha

March 27, 2001
Web posted at: 3:02 p.m. EST (2002 GMT)

(CNN) -- What was it like to spend months in orbit? How did it feel to be the first commander of the new space station? When will everything stop feeling so heavy?

U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd will talk to reporters Wednesday about his recent experiences aboard international space station Alpha.

If you have a question for him send it to:

carolandcolleen@cnn.com

Watch CNN Daybreak at 8 a.m. EST Wednesday for Shepherd to give his responses.

Shepherd, the first commander of the new space station, returned from a 4 1/2 month stay aboard Alpha last Wednesday.

He rode back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the space shuttle Discovery, which had carried up a replacement crew to Alpha.

Shepherd was able to walk off the shuttle under his own steam, surprising doctors and his wife Beth, who also is his rehabilitation therapist.

He also had an appetite, celebrating his return home with a cheeseburger and a beer. Many space travelers feel too queasy to eat once they're back in Earth's gravity after spending time in a near-weightless environment.

Shepherd and his two Russian crewmates, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, exercised vigorously aboard Alpha in order to minimize damage from living in low gravity.

But the three still face weeks of rehabilitation to regain lost bone and muscle.

Discovery brings home first Alpha crew
March 21, 2001

NASA

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