New research explores how a short trip to space affects the human body

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN
AP Science Writer

DALLAS (AP) — New research shows space tourists experience some of the same body changes as astronauts who spend months in orbit. NASA and other organizations have long studied the toll of space travel on astronauts, but there’s been less attention on space tourists. A chartered flight in 2021 by four people allowed researchers to examine how quickly the body adapts to spaceflight. The space tourists on the SpaceX mission saw wide-ranging cellular shifts that mostly stabilized once they returned to Earth. The findings were published Tuesday along with other studies on the health of astronauts.