The ravaging effects of space on the human body revealed as astronauts touch down after 286 days

19 March 2025, 12:55 | Updated: 19 March 2025, 13:11

Two NASA astronauts who have returned to Earth after spending nine months in space now face a long road to recovery and weeks of rehabilitation.

Barry Wilmore, 62 and Suni Willams, 59, emerged from the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule yesterday and were immediately met by medical teams who rushed to help them with stretchers.

They returned to Earth alongside two rescue mission astronauts.

The unexpectedly long mission which started in June 2024 and lasted 286 days. Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Sunni" Williams were initially sent on a mission lasting a few days to test out Boeing's Starliner on its first crewed flight.

But after the spaceship developed propulsion problems, they stayed in space at the International Space Station whilst their craft flew back empty.

 American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov, joined them months later, in September.

Nasa astronauts return to Earth after nine months stuck in space

Before-and-after images have revealed the toll the ordeal has taken on their bodies - and medics have warned of serious health implications from their extended stay in space, including bone problems, ‘chicken legs,’ potential vision problems and increased exposure to radiation.

The astronauts will undergo many days of medical checks and up to 45 days of rehab to help them regain the ability to walk in Earth’s gravity.

During their stay in space, they both lost weight, emerging from the capsule appearing gaunt and tired.

Astronauts who spend even a month in space can start losing bone density and their muscles begin to waste away. The lower gravity also causes fluid to redistribute around the body, causing swelling in the head, which can lead to vision problems, as well as ‘chicken legs’ and ‘baby feet’.

The lack of gravity also affects the human body's ability to run the immune and cardiovascular systems.

 The initial stages of their rehab will focus on walking, flexibility and muscle strengthening, and they will be made to eat a special nutritionally controlled diet.

Their muscles will have atrophied and their bone density will have lowered, leaving them at greater risk of fractures.

Dr John Jaquish, a biomedical engineer, told the Daily Mail: “The human body needs the Earth's gravitational pull, and in an absence of that, a lot of things are not functioning correctly.”

A 30 to 50-year-old astronaut who spends six months in space loses about half their strength. 

Astronauts can also struggle to maintain their weight in space.  Nausea and a loss of smell and taste due to pressure in the sinuses means that astronauts lose their appetites. Fluid migration throughout the body can also lead to serious health issues.

It increases astronauts' risk of blood clots, a condition known as Spaceflight Venous Thrombosis (SVT). 

Wilmore and Williams' 286-day stay exceeds the usual six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for single-mission duration.

During their extended stay, the crew maintained a strict routine; Wilmore would wake up at 4.30am and Williams two hours later.

As well as daily exercise they helped maintain the station, including what they described as “orbital plumbing,” using replacement parts they brought up in the Starliner.

When Starliner developed technical problems, Nasa managers decided to fly it home empty on safety grounds and extend the space mission, sending them to join colleagues on the ISS.

Their time in space became more prominent  after President Trump and Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, claimed that President Biden had “abandoned” the pair there for “political reasons”.

Musk claimed that he offered to send a capsule to fetch Wilmore and Williams last year, but that Biden rejected the offer.

Bill Nelson, the former administrator of Nasa, told the Washington Post “there was no discussion of that whatsoever.”

Wilmore and Williams have also repeatedly rejected talk that they were ever stranded.

“That’s been the narrative from day one, ‘stranded’, ‘abandoned’ or ‘stuck’ — and I get it. We both get it. Help us change the narrative. Let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed despite what you’ve been hearing’. That’s what we prefer,” Wilmore said in February.

Rehabilitation

They will train for two hours a day for seven days, for 45 days.

Phase one includes strength training, flexibility training and regaining their ability to walk - this includes gait training, motion exercises and obstacle training.

Phase two is more strength exercises, and cardio.

Phase three involves a return to functional development training where they will regain the skills they need in order to do their jobs and return to their normal daily life. It may include more high intensity exercises.

Timeline

5 June 2024: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore launch to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft

June 2024: Starliner successfully docks at the ISS after experiencing helium leaks and a thruster issue

August 2024: NASA announces that Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth on a SpaceX capsule instead of the Starliner

September 2024: The uncrewed Starliner capsule returns to Earth.

December 2024: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrive at the ISS

7 March 2025: Sunita Williams hands over command of the ISS to Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin

18 March 2025 (around 5am GMT): Williams, Wilmore, Hague, and Gorbunov undock from the ISS

19 March 2025 (around 10pmGMT): The SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down safely off the coast of Florida