Major health update on NASA's stranded astronauts who are STILL in pain months later
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NASA's astronauts who spent 286 days in space have revealed the painful struggles they've faced after taking a major step forward in their recovery.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who returned from the International Space Station (ISS) in March, have just successfully completed nearly two months of physical therapy.
The astronauts have been going through at least two hours of strength and conditioning training daily, working with NASA's medical team to rebuild muscle mass, restore their balance in Earth's gravity, and prevent further bone loss.
It hasn't been a smooth process, with Wilmore, 62, admitting he still has back pain even after his rehabilitation came to an end.
The astronaut also looked visibly thinner, especially in his face, during his first public appearance since finishing rehab on May 22.
'Gravity stinks for a period, and that period varies for different people,' Wilmore said.
Williams, his 59-year-old co-pilot, added that her recovery from life in space has also been going slowly, as she experienced bouts of fatigue long into NASA's 45-day rehab process.
The fatigue and extreme muscle loss, seen in photos after their landing, left Williams unable to get out of bed easily for weeks after the space mission.
At the same time, the astronauts said they've been taking on an increasing workload, advising Boeing's Starliner program and trying to fix the beleaguered ship that stranded them in space in the first place.
'It's been a little bit of a whirlwind,' Williams told Reuters, adding that the duo still have 'obligations' to NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
The program is a partnership with private companies to develop and operate spacecraft which transport astronauts to and from the ISS.
Williams and Wilmore's mission in the first crewed Starliner pod in June 2024 was plagued with malfunctions, leading NASA and Boeing to cancel their return trip.
This led to the astronauts having to wait 286 days for NASA to get a new spacecraft ready and a replacement crew prepared to rescue them in March 2025.
'I knew we were going to get home at some point in time. We just got to wait for the right ride and make sure everybody's all good with that and we'll get home,' Williams told WFAA during a NASA welcome home celebration last week.
While Williams is remaining positive about the experience on the ISS, she noted that all that time in space disrupted her sleep for months after landing on Earth.
She revealed that she felt tired throughout the physical therapy process, having difficulty getting her muscles to re-engage after living in zero gravity.
A self-proclaimed 'early bird,' Williams' issues made it a struggle for her to wake up in the morning until late May when everything suddenly changed for the better.
'Then I'm up at four in the morning, and I'm like, Aha! I'm back,' she said after the welcome home event on May 22.
The NASA ceremony brought more than 1,000 guests together at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to officially welcome home all four astronauts who returned from the ISS in a SpaceX Dragon capsule on March 18.
For Wilmore, his physical pain started almost immediately after they splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.
'We're still floating in the capsule in the ocean, and my neck starts hurting, while we still hadn't even been extracted yet,' Wilmore revealed.
'I still got a little twinge in one spot in my back after a couple of months,' he added.
Wilmore noted that he had minor back and neck issues before his June 2024 spaceflight, but all of that cleared up in the low-gravity environment of space.
'You don't have any stress on your body,' the astronaut explained.
Both rescued astronauts received weeks of physical and mental health support following their return, speaking with doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists about their isolating experience on the ISS.
'You're thrown together day and night seven days a week at 24 hours a day, and just like any family there's a point where something rubs you the wrong way or something - that happens anywhere,' Wilmore noted.
Despite being locked in the cramped space station with Williams and two other astronauts for months, Wilmore added that their frustrations were 'minor.'
As their recovery ends and the focus now turns to the next crew heading to the ISS, pressure builds on Boeing to make good on their multi-billion-dollar contract with NASA to deliver a vehicle that safely takes humans to and from the space station.
NASA has already revealed plans to send Boeing's Starliner back into space - despite the international scandal it created by stranding Williams and Wilmore.
The same day the astronauts returned to Earth, the space agency officially committed to using Starliner again.
NASA stressed the importance of having two launch systems. SpaceX remains the other.
Boeing's $4.5 billion Starliner project has been plagued with delays, glitches, and billions of dollars in cost overruns since the Commercial Crew Program began in 2010.
NASA has admitted that Starliner will essentially have to go back to square one and prove it can safely carry astronauts all over again.
Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich added that Starliner would have to gain back its certification for the Commercial Crew Program.
