CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Back on Earth now after 141 days in space, U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd -- the first commander of the International Space Station -- says he's ready to settle back into life as a regular guy.
And judging from his frame of mind and his first meal -- a cheeseburger and a beer -- he's well on his way.
Smiling and looking amazingly fit after his planetary homecoming, Shepherd told a NASA interviewer he's looking forward to "saying hi to my two dogs, getting back to my house -- just picking up life where I left it."
"I'm very much interested in just getting back to a normal life for a while back in Houston," the 51-year-old astronaut said. "I usually get up, have a cup of coffee [and] take the dogs out for a jog around the block. And that's one of the things I miss the most right now -- just being a regular person for awhile."
Shepherd and his two Russian colleagues -- Yuri Gidzenko, 38, and Sergei Krikalev, 42 -- returned from the international outpost aboard shuttle Discovery early Wednesday, winding up a four-and-a-half-month "shakedown cruise" at station Alpha.
All three came through the vanguard voyage -- and the subsequent return to normal gravity -- in great shape, especially considering how woozy and wobbly space travelers can be after extended stays in weightlessness.
The U.S. Navy captain was having a bit of trouble rounding corners, and the mere act of slipping into a blue Russian flight suit was a chore."Everything is about three times as heavy as I expected," he said. "Just putting on these coveralls this morning in Discovery: I picked up what's got to be a couple of ounces of cloth, and it felt like five pounds."
But he was strong enough to walk, rather than be carried, off the shuttle. And even Shepherd's physical therapist -- who also happens to be his wife, Beth Stringham Shepherd -- was astonished by his condition, which she attributed to vigorous exercise before and during his flight.
"I have to tell you that I'm glad I didn't make a bet with him because I would have lost, big time," Stringham Shepherd told reporters in a teleconference here at Kennedy Space Center.
"He really looks wonderful, and I'm very surprised at how he's just walking around," she added. "He seems very strong. He was standing up, walking around, the whole time."
Stringham Shepherd speaks from experience.
A veteran NASA strength and conditioning coach, she rehabbed the seven American astronauts who served long tours aboard Russia's space station Mir during the late 1990s. And she'll also be whipping her husband back into shape -- a slow, deliberate and inevitably arduous process that is expected to take at least two months.
"We usually start out very, very conservatively, and we just take it day by day," Stringham Shepherd said. "We don't want to hurt him. It's basically like taking care of an athlete after that person has had surgery."
An outgoing 40-year-old, Stringham Shepherd celebrated her husband's Oct. 31 launch at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by passing out cigars and lighting one up.
She was just as happy to see her husband walk off an airport-like "people-mover" in front of astronaut crew quarters about an hour after Shepherd touched down on terra firma.
"The first thing that we did was just give each other a hug and say, 'Welcome home,'" she said.
Between a battery of initial post-flight medical tests, Shepherd grabbed a burger and a Budweiser, the latter because there was no Heineken -- his favorite -- in the refrigerator.
Then it was off to the shower, a luxury after a season of space station sponge baths.
"He said that was great. And right now, some well-earned sleep is what he's getting. He was really excited about just crawling beneath the covers. He was just like, 'Ahhhhh: this is wonderful.' So he was, like, 'I'm outta here, and he went to sleep.'"
Next up for the amiable couple: A return to Houston, and a new life of sorts.
The two have been married for just five years -- a period largely consumed by mission training that required frequent traveling to Moscow and back, and protracted separations.
"This has pretty much been our whole life, so hopefully we'll have a chance to get to know each other a little bit better. And I really look forward to spending some time with him, and doing some things with him instead of separately," Stringham Shepherd said.
The reception party in Houston will include family, friends and both Jake and Captain, the couple's two Labrador Retrievers. It will be Shepherd's first meeting with Captain, a pup that he arranged to give his wife for Christmas, one of several holidays he spent in space.
Then it will be off to their home in the suburbs, a place Shepherd has yet to get truly acquainted with, and some hard-earned rest and relaxation.
"I think he's really looking forward to having some down time, and just having a chance to be at home," Stringham Shepherd said. "We moved into a house two years ago, and he still hasn't really unpacked yet. He still really hasn't had a chance to live in our new house. So he's really looking forward to taking some time off."
The cupboard, meanwhile, is stocked with everything but the type of thermostablized and freeze-dried food that serves as the orbital bill of fare. And you can bet the refrigerator is full of his favorite beer.
There's "Snickers and Mars Bars and his fruit pops: He loves these lime-aid fruit pops, and some big old thick pretzels," Stringham Shepherd said. "And hopefully, the first thing that we'll do is we'll grill a big steak out there by the pool and drink a few Heinekens."
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