What Is This Mysterious Syndrome Affecting the Eyesight of 80% of Astronauts?

Editor’s Note: Add this to the giant pile of stuff we aren’t being told about what’s really going on in outer space… Eighty percent is a huge number of astronauts who have been to space for long-term periods and who are all having the same problem… This story comes from a New Zealand news outlet.

Via Stuff:

In 2005, astronaut John Phillips took a break from his work on the International Space Station and looked out the window at Earth. He was about halfway through a mission that had begun in April and would end in October. When he gazed down at the planet, the Earth was blurry. He couldn’t focus on it clearly.That was strange-he’d always had 20/20 vision.

He wondered: was his eyesight getting worse?”I’m not sure if I reported that to the ground,” he said. “I think I didn’t. I thought it would be something that would just go away, and fix itself when I got to Earth.”

It didn’t go away.

During Phillips’ post-flight physical, NASA found that his vision had gone from 20/20 to 20/100 in six months.Rigorous testing followed. Phillips got MRIs, retinal scans, neurological tests, and a lumbar puncture. The tests showed that not only had his vision changed, but his eyes had changed as well.The back of his eye had gotten flatter, pushing his retina forward. He had choroidal folds, which are like stretch marks on the back of the eye. His optic nerve was inflamed.

Phillips became the first widely recognised case of a mysterious syndrome that affects 80 per cent of astronauts on long-duration missions in space.

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