Sorry, I’m not really 3in taller, says astronaut

A JAPANESE astronaut has apologised for wrongly claiming he had grown threeand-a-half inches taller while in space.

Norishige Kanai’s first space mission began on the International Space Station three weeks ago. After measuring himself earlier this week the 41-year-old tweeted that he had grown ‘like some plant’.

But yesterday – after his Russian commander doubted his claim – he blamed ‘a measurement mistake’.

However, he has grown by three-quarters of an inch. In ultra-low gravity the spine stretches out.