North Allegheny grad and NASA astronaut Hoburg returns to Earth

After 186 days and many, many miles aboard the International Space Station, former North Allegheny graduate Dr. Warren “Woody” Hoburg, a North Allegheny High School graduate and astronaut on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6, is back on Earth.

Crew-6 returned to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, splashing down at 12:17 a.m., Sept. 4, off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla., and flew back to Houston shortly afterward, according to NASA.

Hoburg, a 2004 NA graduate who grew up in Marshall Township, expects to visit Pittsburgh in a few weeks as his brother still lives in the area.

But first he and the other astronauts are re-acclimating to earth after being in zero gravity.

Hoburg and fellow NASA astronaut Steve Bowen and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, will soon be entering a period of rehabilitation, but got together to answer questions during a Sept. 12 press conference from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev was unable to participate in the question-and-answer session due to travel.

The crew blazed nearly 78.9 million statute miles during 2,976 orbits around the Earth, the first space mission for Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev, and the fourth for Bowen.

Alneyadi said “everything feels really heavy” when they first returned.

Going from 1G to 0G and back to 1G makes profound changes in the body, Hoburg said. After being in weightlessness for so long, it’s so “strange” doing basic things such as walking and jogging, Hoburg said.

But the body re-adapts fairly quickly.

“After a couple of weeks, you feel back to normal,” Hoburg said. “Every day feels a little bit better.”

As a lifelong Steelers fan, Hoburg took a Terrible Towel with him on board and could spot the familiar landmarks around Pittsburgh while in space.

“I could see the three rivers standing out clear as day during the many times of passing over.”

While they were in low Earth orbit — the ISS is only about 250 miles from the Earth’s surface — “seeing our planet from space is just incredible,” Hoburg said.

“It just kind of right in your face on how precious and fragile earth is,” Hoburg said.

The ISS circles the Earth every 90 minutes, traveling about 17,500 miles per hour. This gives the crew 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, according NASA.

Nothing prepares for how it actually feels to be launched into space until actually doing it, Hoburg said.

“It was such a dream come true, such an amazing experience,” he said.

As far as eating in space, the astronauts agreed fresh food on the station was a treat. Hoburg had a favorite kitchen snack in the station’s food lab.

“I was a big fan of making tacos,” he said.

The crew released Saskatchewan’s first satellite, which tests a new radiation detection and protection system derived from melanin that’s found in many organisms, including humans.

Bowen and Hoburg completed two spacewalks, and Alneyadi became the first UAE astronaut to complete a spacewalk. Hoburg called the spacewalk amazing and said the suit was super comfortable. He felt “right at home” with it on.

Hoburg said he enjoyed the experiments they did in space. Some included conducting a student robotic challenge, studying plant genetic adaptations to space and monitoring human health in microgravity, according to NASA.

To pass the time, the crew played chess with mission control. And Hoburg worked on his photography, taking observation photos to keep busy.

When it was time to leave the space station, Crew-6 spent about a week with the newly arrived crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission that docked to the station Aug. 27, handing over ongoing tasks. Both missions are part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.