"Theoretically, we should be standing like this, with the floor actually being the wall," said Lin Ju.
Meng Senlin "stood" on the cabin wall at the rear of the Starship Storm's cockpit, facing the floor in the normal flight attitude, while the portholes and several other astronauts were above his head.
By now, it had been 260 minutes since Storm had detached from the space station.
The three engines were still accelerating, and according to the flight computer's data, they would temporarily shut down in about 40 minutes. Then, the entire spacecraft would flip over and begin a deceleration process nearly 13 hours long, at which point the acceleration Meng Senlin experienced would completely reverse.
Logically speaking, astronauts should not be allowed to move freely during the acceleration or deceleration phases of a manned spacecraft.