What Space Smells Like

When astronauts return from space walks and remove their helmets, they are welcomed back with a peculiar smell. An odor that is distinct and weird: something astronauts have described as 'seared steak,' 'hot metal,' and 'welding fumes.'

Space, astronaut Tony Antonelli has said, definitely has a smell that's different than anything else. Three-time spacewalker Thomas Jones has put it, 'carries a distinct odor of ozone, a faint acrid smell.' And now, NASA is trying to reproduce that smell for training purposes - the better to help preemptively acclimate astronauts to the odors of the extra-atmospheric environment.