Last thursday, I went to the Brussels book fair and met Frank De Winne once again.
He signed his book for me.
We also had a Q&A session.
He said he never looked at the Earth, while inside the capsule on its way to the ISS.
That's because the Soyuz solar panels must be aimed towards the Sun as much as possible, which sends the entire spacecraft into a slowly controled rotation, slow but fast enough to makes cosmonauts queasy and upset, especially in the beginning of the mission.
Then I asked him about the lifespan of the Soyuz in space.
He said the fuel meant to slow the spacecraft back to an earthbound path is made of H2O2 (heavy water) which has a tendency in space to decompose into H2O and O2 ; the water evaporates into space, risking not having enough fuel to return back. A solution is to add small helium tanks that can prevent the slow escape and increase the lifespan up to a full year.

Raoul