While Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been in space for nine months, Frank Rubio was up there for over a year
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may have been stranded in space for nine months, but they are nowhere near the US record.
Technical issues on their Boeing Starliner spacecraft prevented them from returning after stepping aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024.
Ever since, a return date for their return has been up in the air, and delayed numerous times.
Advert
There was hope this week, as a potential launch date was set for 12 March by NASA and SpaceX, who have been working on the Crew-10 mission, though this has been delayed due to a hydraulic fault.
It could still launch this evening (14 March) with four astronauts on board, with a potential return for Wilmore and Williams on Monday (17 March).
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been working to get the pair back down to Earth, but even their extended stay in space doesn’t come close to what NASA astronaut Frank Rubio experienced in 2023, after spending 371 days in space, setting an American record.
Advert
After more than a year in space, he set foot on Earth on 27 September, 2023, and went through several bodily changes as he readjusted to life with climate and gravity.
Rubio’s mission was intended to be six months long, but as his time was more than doubled, we got to find out the effects of living gravity-free for an extended period of time.
While the vast majority of humans will never get the opportunity to visit space, this might be the closest we can get.
So, what are these effects, and how many of these might apply to Wilmore and Williams?
Advert
The pair will have to undergo a number of medical tests (MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)
The lack of gravity causes a decrease in muscle mass and even bone loss within just the first couple months of a mission – let alone the year Rubio spent up there.
At the time of the NASA astronaut’s landing, Dr Jennifer Fogarty, chief scientific officer at Baylor College of Medicine’s Translational Research Institute for Space Health, told ABC News: “How do you coordinate movement like walking, which you haven’t done for a long period of time, and then the idea of balance?
“When you put those two together, it can kind of create a little bit of a precarious situation and something that’s very well-monitored with the crew members when they land on Earth.”
Advert
The expert also added that the longer the time in space goes on for, the longer the time it takes for the astronaut to reacclimatise when they get back.
So while Wilmore and Williams may take some time to get back to normal, it will be nowhere as extreme as Rubio’s experience.
Nine months is bad, but more than a year in space is brutal (Paolo Nespoli – ESA/NASA via Getty Images)
Also, when living in space, an astronaut’s blood flow can be heavily affected.
Advert
This can cause symptoms including blurred vision or eye swelling due to something known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome.
According to the co-director of the Center for Aerospace Physiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Dr Michael Decker, our veins have handy-dandy valves in them to make sure ‘blood doesn’t flow backwards when we stand up’.
And being enclosed in a weightless room for a long period of time will certainly impact the body’s blood flow.
He added: “Some of this increased intracranial pressure can actually impact the eye and lead to visual impairment.
“Sometimes when astronauts land, that visual impairment does not necessarily resolve.”
Featured Image Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images
Topics: Health, NASA, Science, Space, Technology, Donald Trump, Elon Musk
Joshua Nair
Donald Trump speaks out on NASA astronauts stuck in space for nine months
Donald Trump has commented on stranded NASA astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita Williams
It’s hard to tell, but I think Donald Trump is very fond of Sunita Williams’ hair.
The NASA astronaut – along with colleague Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore – has been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024.
They were only supposed to be there for eight days, but were forced to extend their stay due to technical issues with the spacecraft, as well as Joe Biden’s alleged reluctance to bring them home, says Wilmore.
Advert
President Trump on the other hand promised on Thursday (7 March) to use his sidekick and SpaceX boss Elon Musk to work on their return to Earth.
Watch below as the 78-year-old takes time out to compliment Williams’ zero gravity hair-do:
“Biden left them up there,” Trump said to the reporters in the Oval Office.
Advert
“We have two astronauts that are stuck in space. I have asked Elon (Musk), I said, ‘Do me a favour. Can you get them out?’ He said, ‘Yes.’
“He is preparing to go up, I think in two weeks.”
He claims that the world’s richest man is ‘right now preparing a ship to go up’ and get them.
“And I see the woman with the wild hair, good, solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding, there’s no games with her hair,” Trump added.
Advert
Donald Trump is a fan of Sunita Williams’ hair (NASA)
Addressing the two astronauts, he said: “We love you, and we’re coming up to get you. And you shouldn’t have been up there so long.”
Things then got a little weirder, as the POTUS added: “We’re going to get them out. We’re coming up to get you.
“They’ve been left up there. I hope they like each other, but they’ve been… maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know, but they’ve been left up there. Think of it.
Advert
“There’s a danger up there too. It can have some failures up there. That would be very bad. You got to get them out.”
With Musk’s SpaceX being tasked with bringing the crew back to Earth, Wilmore and Williams are expected to return no earlier than 19 March.
The US President spoke to reporters from the Oval Office today (C-SPAN)
The pair were asked in a press conference on Tuesday (4 March) if the Biden administration declined Musk’s offer to bring them back earlier.
Advert
“I can only say that Mr Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual,” Wilmore claimed.
“So I believe him. I don’t know all those details, and I don’t think any of us really can give you the answer that maybe that you would be hoping for.”
Musk added on X: “The astronauts were only supposed to be up there for eight days and now have been there for eight months.
“SpaceX could have sent up another Dragon and brought them home six months ago, but the Biden-Harris White House (not NASA) refused to allow it.
“President Trump asked to bring them back as soon as possible and we are doing so.”
Featured Image Credit: NASA
Topics: Donald Trump, Space, US News, Elon Musk, NASA
Anish Vij
Stranded NASA astronaut revealed concerning effects of being stuck in space as doctors make sad admission
Doctors have raised concerns about the effects of being in space for so long
One of the NASA astronauts currently stranded in space has spoken about the impact being away from our planet for so long has had on their body, while doctors have got some concerns over the pair.
Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams were only supposed to be on board the International Space Station for eight days but they have been away from Planet Earth since June 2024.
Technical issues with the spacecraft they were supposed to make their return trip on were discovered and it was decided they should not come back on it.
Advert
Now, thankfully, it won’t be long before they’re set to get back onto solid ground and feel gravity once more as a new crew is headed up to the International Space Station and they’ll be going home with the crew that gets rotated out.
However, they’re feeling the effects of being in space for so long and it sounds quite concerning.
They’ll be coming back soon, but it’ll be a while before they’re used to being back down to Earth (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Suni Williams explained that she’s been in space for so long that that she’s found remembering how to walk difficult since she’s been in a zero-gravity environment for so long.
Advert
“I’ve been up here long enough right now I’ve been trying to remember what it’s like to walk,” she said when answering questions from students at her old school.
“I haven’t walked. I haven’t sat down. I haven’t laid down. You don’t have to. You can just close your eyes and float where you are right here.”
Being in space for so long will require a period of rehabilitation for the astronauts as they get used to returning to life with 10 Newtons of gravity.
Pulmonologist and Air Force veteran Dr Vinay Gupta told the Daily Mail that for Butch and Suni this rehabilitation will have to last at least six weeks so they can regain their strength and return to a diet fit for an Earthling.
Advert
Suni Williams has said it’s hard to remember how to walk (NASA)
He explained that the human body ‘needs the Earth’s gravitational pull’, and without it ‘a lot of things are not functioning correctly’.
However, the doc also raised concerns over what else being in space for so long can do to the human body as he warned that being in space for so long might have exposed them to enough radiation to increase their risk of cancer.
Dr Gupta said that if he was the astronauts’ doctor he would ‘think about a more proactive strategy for cancer screening’.
Advert
NASA has previously done an experiment where they had identical twin astronauts and sent one into space for a year to measure the change it had on the human body.
The twin who went into space suffered some damage to his DNA, which researchers put down to radiation exposure in space, though fortunately most (but not all) of the damage was repaired six months after he was back.
Featured Image Credit: NASA
Joe Harker
NASA astronauts who’ve been stuck in space for nine months reveal ‘hardest part’ about mission
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be returning to Earth in the next couple of weeks
Stranded astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams are nearing their return date, and have now revealed the hardest factor of their nine-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Butch and Suni were originally sent up for an eight-day mission by NASA, blasting off from Earth in a Boeing Starliner that ran into a number of technical issues on its way to the ISS.
After stepping aboard the space station in June, neither would have thought that they’d be off the face of the planet for three quarters of a year.
A target date of 12 March has been set for their return mission to launch.
Advert
Despite claims from Elon Musk that he offered to bring them back even earlier, which has since been rebuffed by senior figures at NASA, the pair can now look forward to feeling the effects of gravity again.
Musk has been involved in bringing the pair back though, as NASA began working with SpaceX last year.
Wilmore and Williams have become part of the furniture on the ISS, helping to run and maintain the station, even completing a spacewalk in January.
Now, the astronauts are waiting until their replacements arrive next week so that they can check out of ISS for good.
Advert
Their extended stay will have taken a toll on their bodies too, as a doctor revealed that they would probably need a six-week rehabilitation programme at the very least, to regain their strength.
They’ve been in space for nine months (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Reflecting on their stay, Williams revealed the hardest part of the pair’s unplanned stay aboard the spacecraft.
It’s all to do with the fact that they’ve been unable to see their families and loved ones, adding: “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little more so than for us.”
Advert
They will be joined on their ride home by two other astronauts on the SpaceX capsule, who will be making their way to the ISS with two empty seats.
The Boeing Starliner that Wilmore and Williams arrived on faced so many problems that it was deemed safer to allow it to fly back to Earth, unmanned.
Their return was delayed further after time was needed to complete the SpaceX capsule that will be used to bring them home.
They said that they were prepared to stay as long as it took (YouTube/NASA)
Advert
It is said by NASA that the crews will spend a week together aboard the ISS before departing.
Wilmore and Williams have insisted throughout their stay that they are healthy, and have been prepared to stay onboard as long as it may take.
Williams explained on Tuesday: “We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That’s what we do in human space flight.
“That’s what your nation’s human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”
Featured Image Credit: NASA
Joshua Nair
NASA breaks silence about reason they left astronauts stranded in space for nine months as rescue mission delayed
A rocket was finally supposed to launch yesterday to bring Butch and Suni home
There’s been a major setback for the NASA astronauts who have been stranded in space for the last nine months.
Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita Williams flew out to space back in June and have now been at the International Space Station (ISS) since. This all began as the Boeing spacecraft they were supposed to return on after their eight-day mission was deemed unsafe.
A NASA-Space X mission was due to set off yesterday (12 March), with four new crew members to pave the way for the return of Williams and Wilmore. It would have meant they could’ve been back as early as Sunday. But this has now been postponed.
Advert
And as previous options were put forward to bring them back to Earth, NASA has spoken about why they left the astronauts stranded up there.
Suni and Butch. (NASA)
Back in July, the space agency awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX a special contract to look into bringing the pair back on a Crew Dragon vehicle.
Associate administrator Ken Bowersox said during a teleconference last Friday: “The SpaceX folks helped us with a lot of options for how we would bring Butch and Suni home on Dragon in a contingency.”
Advert
He said there were ‘always options’ in terms of adding on missions or bringing a capsule home early.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 were supposed to launch yesterday. (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images)
“But we ruled them out pretty quickly just based on how much money we’ve got in our budget, and the importance of keeping crews on the International Space Station,” he added. “They’re an important part of maintaining the station.”
And Space Operations Mission Directorate said: “The best option was really the one that we’re embarking upon now.”
Advert
Vice president for SpaceX, Bill Gerstenmaier, said that NASA’s delayed plan for bringing the astronauts back allowed it to ‘use Sunny and Butch in a very productive manner’ and ‘keep the science going’.
Yesterday’s Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ended up being put back due to a hydraulic ground issue.
Engineers have been trying to fix the issue after concerns one of the clamp arms wouldn’t have been able to open fully during launch.
Advert
The plan for the SpaceX rocket it to fly out four new crew members (two from the US, one from Japan, and another from Russia) to the ISS, allowing for the Williams and Wilmore’s return.
The company has said the next launch window would be on Friday evening.
Williams said earlier this month: “We’re here, we have a mission – we’re just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we’re up in space and it’s a lot of fun.”
