Toyohiro Akiyama Battled Orbital Nausea

Japanese television journalist Toyohiro Akiyama became the first Japanese person in space when he flew aboard Soyuz TM-11 to the Mir space station on December 2, 1990. Akiyama had quit a four-pack-a-day smoking habit during training, and he battled cigarette cravings and severe space sickness while delivering live reports from orbit. His nausea became so extreme that his fellow cosmonauts later said they "hadn't ever seen a man vomit that much."

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