Does a 77-year-old back ache in the weightlessness of space?
John Glenn, the world's oldest astronaut, was to answer that question yesterday when he and three crew mates aboard the US space shuttle Discovery filled out a medical questionnaire about their backs.
Astronauts on extended space trips often suffer back pain because their muscles weaken from disuse and their spines stretch out in the zero-gravity environment.
The short-statured Glenn, who is a guinea pig for geriatric research on the flight, said earlier that his back was not bothering him but joked that he hoped to gain a couple of inches in height during his return to space after 36 years.
The four participating astronauts will be tested for several weeks after the nine-day flight to monitor changes in their backs as they readjust to gravity. Scientists say the information may lead to treatment for back ailments on Earth.
The survey was one of several research projects that the shuttle crew were to work on as they moved into their seventh day in space.
Discovery is loaded down with 83 experiments and 20 laptop computers to help in performing them.
John Glenn, continuing a non-stop media blitz, was scheduled to tape an interview with the Tonight Show host Jay Leno and chat with Walter Cronkite during an event in Houston commemorating NASA's 40th anniversary.
Glenn, who in 1962 became the first American to orbit the earth, is retiring after 24 years as a senator from Ohio. The Republican Party's Governor George Voinovich was elected on Tuesday to succeed Glenn, who is a Democrat.