What Happens If You Sneeze in Space? (2024)

This story was updated at 4:16 p.m. EDT

Sneezes can pack a wallop on Earth, but for an astronaut in a spacesuit they can also make a mess of things, a veteran spacewalker said Tuesday.

Six-time spacewalker Dave Wolf, currently flying on the International Space Station, said astronauts can't stop from sneezing inside their spacesuits, and there's no way to blow your nose.

"That's a valid question because I've done it quite a few times, most recently yesterday," Wolf said, as he answered a video question sent to NASA via YouTube.

The trick, Wolf said, is having good aim, something every spacewalker learns in training. After all, no one wants to sneeze on their spacesuit helmet.

"Aim low, off the windshield, because it can mess up your view and there's no way to clear it," said Wolf, who spent nearly seven hours working outside the station on Monday and will do it again tomorrow. "That's how you do it."

Quizzing astronauts in space

Wolf's treatise on space sneezing was part of a high-tech question-and-answer session by Endeavour shuttle astronauts currently working at the International Space Station. The shuttle launched to the station last week. The questions were submitted well in advance to shuttle commander Mark Polansky and his crew via YouTube and the microblogging Web site Twitter.

Polansky goes by the name @Astro_127 on Twitter as part of an effort to engage the public about Endeavour's 16-day flight to the International Space Station. Questions were sent in from all over the world from schoolchildren, teenagers and adults alike.

"I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know a tweet from a Twitter," Polansky said of his tweeting before flight. "I've learned that there's a whole community out there that loves this stuff."

He is the second astronaut to tweet from space, but others have promised to follow on future flights. Polansky and his crew are working through a marathon flight to deliver an experiment porch and new crew member to the space station.

The best job on Earth

During Tuesday's question and answer session, Polansky and Wolf were joined by Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and shuttle pilot Doug Hurley.

Olivia, 15, from Connecticut asked the astronauts if they liked their job and what it was really like to live in space.

"It is great to be an astronaut. It is essentially is the best job on Earth," said Payette, adding that astronauts spend most of their time training and supporting missions from Earth. "When we do get to go, it's extraordinary; it is a real privilege."

Astronauts have to put up with living with a lot of people in a confined space - there are 13 people aboard the station now, the most ever - but floating in weightlessness and the views of Earth more than make up for it, she said.

The astronauts were also asked if they would ever want to take their families along for a ride in space if it was safe to do so.

"We'd be so happy if we could take them with us," said Payette, who has two young sons. "If it was a possibility, we'd really like to have our kids playing in microgravity with us and our friends to share and watch the Earth pass by."

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