# What Happens to Your Body in Space Without a Spacesuit?

- Page: https://pxreality.com/videos/what-happens-to-your-body-in
- Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw
- Published: 2026-11-06
- Channel: PXReality (https://www.youtube.com/@PXReality)

## Summary

What really happens if you step into space without a spacesuit? You don't explode. You don't freeze solid. Your blood doesn't instantly boil. Something much sneakier gets you first, and it's your own lungs.

I open the airlock in a T-shirt and we follow the mission clock second by second: the whoosh, why you must breathe out, your spit boiling and freezing at the same time, the real NASA vacuum-chamber accident of Jim LeBlanc, why you pass out in about ten seconds, why your body puffs up, Joe Kittinger's swollen hand at 31 km, why space is a giant thermos, the danger line at about a minute and a half, and the rescue. Plus the real air leak that sent astronauts on the space station into their capsule in June 2026.

The animation is our own art; real photos are from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and a 1971 Soviet stamp.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Ten seconds in space (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=0s)
- 0:27 The real air leak (June 2026) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=27s)
- 0:57 Air is pushing on you (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=57s)
- 1:13 The marshmallow and the boiling water (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=73s)
- 1:53 The three movie endings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=113s)
- 2:09 Second zero: the airlock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=129s)
- 2:56 Boiling and freezing at once (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=176s)
- 3:22 Jim LeBlanc's vacuum accident (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=202s)
- 4:08 Why you pass out so fast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=248s)
- 5:02 Puffing up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=302s)
- 5:27 Joe Kittinger's glove (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=327s)
- 5:57 Why you don't freeze (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=357s)
- 6:39 The danger line (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=399s)
- 7:25 The rescue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=445s)
- 7:58 The answer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yFamvfUCw&t=478s)

## Sources

- NASA Bioastronautics Data Book, 2nd ed. (SP-3006, 1973), Ch. 1 "Barometric Pressure": https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19730006364
- FAA Advisory Circular AC 61-107B, Times of Useful Consciousness: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_61-107B.pdf
- Bancroft, "Physiological Responses to Near-Vacuum" (1966): https://store.astm.org/stp46440s.html
- Jim LeBlanc accident: NASA (via kottke.org), Space Safety Magazine (2012), Roth NASA CR-1223 (1968)
- Joe Kittinger, National Geographic, Nov 1960; USAF Museum (Excelsior): https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/195681/excelsior-gondola/
- Soyuz 11: https://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz11-accident.html ; NASA JSC: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20120006021
- ISS air leak shelter, June 2026: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astronauts-take-shelter-on-the-international-space-station-due-to-air-leaks/
- Photos: NASA (space station, Crew Dragon, McCandless spacewalk, Johnson Space Center Chamber A), U.S. Air Force (Kittinger), USSR postal stamp 1971 (Soyuz 11 crew)
- Music: YouTube Audio Library (Stake Out, Fire In The Sky, Ancient Civilisations by Alex Jones / Xander Jones; Drifting Memories, Obon Fog by The Mini Vandals; The Fifth Quadrant by Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz, Tone Seeker; Drone Shot by Dyalla; Pulsar, False Vacuum Decay, Taking Flight)