Spaced out

Astronaut's self-declared growth spurt dubbed 'fake news'

Spaced out
Norishige Kanai waves before the launch of the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft in Kazakhstan, Dec. 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool

JAPANEmployees have been known to lie from time to time, but a Japanese astronaut got into a bit of trouble recently when he told a tall tale.

Norishige Kanai was up in the International Space Station when he went on Twitter to say he had grown three-and-a-half inches since arriving three weeks earlier: “Today I share some serious news. Since coming to space, I have grown nine centimetres. This is the most I’ve grown in three weeks since junior high school.”

While it’s true weightlessness can have that effect, that kind of dramatic growth would be rare, according to the Washington Post.

After a Russian colleague expressed skepticism, Kanai measured himself again and found the growth was closer to two centimetres.

He then called his previous announcement “fake news.”

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