'Is Having Two Legs Useful' in Space?: Astronaut John McFall Explains What Life in Orbit Might Be Like for the First Physically Disabled Person in Space

'Is having two legs useful' in space?: Astronaut John McFall explains what life in orbit might be like for the first physically disabled person in space

ESA astronaut John McFall tells Live Science what it would mean to become the first physically disabled person in space — if he travels to the first-ever commercial space station next year — and how life in orbit might affect him differently than everyone else.

When John McFall lost his right leg at 19, no one could have known the former Paralympic sprinter might one day carry the first amputee body into orbit, where two weeks in microgravity could test what six decades of spaceflight medicine never measured

John McFall lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident at 19, won a Paralympic bronze medal in Beijing, became an orthopaedic surgeon, and may now become the first person with a physical disability to live and work in orbit. The proposed flight is not just a symbolic first. If it happens, McFall’s body and prosthesis will become instruments in a medical experiment that six decades of crewed spaceflight have barely begun to design. The UK Space …