Toyohiro Akiyama’s Tough Trip to Space

Toyohiro Akiyama, the first Japanese person in space, did not feel very well during his historic trip. In 1990, the journalist spent eight days aboard the Mir space station and had an unusually severe case of space sickness.

His Soviet crewmates later said they had “never seen a person who vomited so much.” Another challenge was not having cigarettes: before training, Akiyama smoked about four packs a day. Before launch, he said that after returning to Earth, what he looked forward to most was a cigarette.