Astronaut Bob Hines back in Boston after journey to International Space Station

BOSTON -- Boston University is welcoming back to campus an alumnus that is out of this world. No seriously, he just came back from space. 

Bob Hines spent 170 days in orbit on the International Space Station. It was his first mission into space. Hines spent years as a test pilot in the US Air Force. He has flown more than 50 types of planes, but this was his first time piloting a spaceship. 

"I don't think anything prepares you for the emotion of sitting on a rocket," laughed Hines. "Nowadays it's much like airliners. Whether you like it or not, you get on an airliner and the pilots are hands off the majority of the flight. Once we get on orbit the vehicle is mostly autonomous, but there are occasions we have to take over." 

His crew flew to the space station two months after the war started in Ukraine. On the space station, every country must work together. As Hines says, "Up there, peace reigns supreme." 

The International Space Station has a laboratory. They can be working on any of roughly 250 experiments a day. He says some tests can only be done in zero gravity. 

"Time is very managed to make sure we get the most science out of the space station as we can get," said Hines. 

He can video chat with his family once a week. In July, he did a video call from space with students at BU and local high schools. He returned this week to meet them in person. 

"I am always so excited to see the questions they are about to ask. Inevitably, they want to know things like, 'What was your favorite food?' Ironically, space ice cream is the one thing we don't have even though it's in every gift shop," joked Hines. 

The astronauts must complete 2.5 hours of exercise every day to maintain their strength in a zero-gravity environment. Hines came back to earth in October, but it took almost two months for his body to fully acclimate. He wasn't allowed to drive for the first two weeks.