Last week, media outlets like The Recent York Post and The Each day Mail claimed that International Space Station astronaut Suni Williams’ health was deteriorating — and today, (Nov. 13), similar conjectures were made about her fellow ISS inhabitant Butch Wilmore.
In response to the assertions about Williams, each NASA and Williams herself spoke out to confirm that she’s positive. Now, in response to those rumors about Wilmore, NASA has chimed in once more.
“All NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station are in good health,” Dr. J.D. Polk, chief health and medical officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington, told reporters in an emailed statement on Nov. 13. “It’s unlucky that rumors persist otherwise.”
Speculation about Williams’ health seems to have been based on recent photos released by the agency. Dr. Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist who’s unaffiliated with NASA, suggested to The Each day Mail that the pictures show Williams’ cheeks appearing “sunken” and illustrate a one who has been “experiencing the natural stresses of living at a really high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for prolonged periods.” Each this outlet in addition to The Recent York Post specifically say Williams looked “gaunt.” Yet, during a video interview Williams conducted aboard the ISS on Nov. 12, she said, “I’m the identical weight that I used to be once I got up here.”
“I could definitely tell that weightlifting, which is just not something that I do on a regular basis, has definitely modified me,” Williams added, referring to a number of the mandated exercise astronauts perform while living in microgravity conditions for prolonged periods of time. “My thighs are slightly bit greater, my butt is slightly bit greater,” she said, though also stressing: “I weigh the identical.”
With regard to speculation about Wilmore, The Recent York Post published an article today titled “NASA monitoring second stranded astronaut’s possible weight reduction after raising alarm about colleague Sunita Williams’ health.”
In keeping with the outlet, an unnamed NASA worker who’s “involved with the mission” said that Wilmore “has also been losing body mass.” The source apparently added that, because Wilmore “had loads more mass initially,” it isn’t “as big of a deal.” In this text, The Recent York Post again states that Williams looked “jarringly gaunt” within the released photos, and includes one image of Williams with a caption claiming that NASA is “working to assist astronaut Sunita Williams placed on kilos after she had significant weight reduction.”
Yet, Dr. Polk said within the Nov. 13 statement that “NASA and our partners have safely conducted long-duration missions aboard the orbital laboratory for a long time, studying the consequences of space on the human body as we prepare for exploration farther into the solar system.”
“Crew health is usually monitored by dedicated flight surgeons on Earth, they usually have a person weight loss plan and fitness regime to make sure they continue to be healthy throughout their expeditions,” Dr. Polk added.
Additionally it is value noting that it isn’t quite accurate to call Williams and Wilmore “stranded” astronauts; each caught a ride to the ISS on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft back in June as a part of the capsule’s first crewed flight test (aptly named Crew Flight Test, or CFT). That mission was originally imagined to last about 10 days, but as a consequence of issues with Starliner’s propulsion system, it needed to be prolonged. Things were actually in limbo for some time, as NASA didn’t immediately announce what Plan B was going to be for Williams and Wilmore — a kind of limbo that spurred the unique “stranded astronaut” narrative — but a blueprint for his or her return was eventually put together.
They’re slated to come back back to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February of 2025 alongside the 2 astronauts of the Crew-9 mission — who reached the ISS in September — and NASA has previously stated that there are good enough supplies onboard the orbiting laboratory to sustain all astronauts until their scheduled return dates. Other ISS dwellers for the time being include NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.
As for the Starliner capsule, it returned to Earth empty on Sept. 6 — and it won’t be long before the spacecraft’s crewmembers follow it home.
