Stranded NASA astronauts reveal one thing they must do every day in space to combat worrying health condition
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: NASA
Sunita Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore - the two astronauts who've been stranded in space for eight months - have lifted the lid on the brutal realities of being trapped in microgravity, including a looming risk to their health.
Speaking to press from the International Space Station on Friday (31 January), the pair discussed a routine they've been forced to implement into the daily lives, which could keep the potentially-debilitating condition at bay.
For those out of the loop with Williams and Wilmore's outer-space adventure, the pair sky-rocketed - literally - out of the Earth's atmosphere on 5 June 2024, with their mission only supposed to last a total of eight days.
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It was then that they were scheduled to return home.
Sadly, however, their Boeing capsule suffered a series of technical issues, meaning that returning to Earth was not a safe and stable possibility.
The spacecraft then made its way home without them, as teams on the ground spent several months planning a way to see the pair return home to their families.
It is understood for the time being that Williams and Wilmore won't be able to flee the Space Station until March, with plans in place for them to hitch a ride on SpaceX's Crew-9 spacecraft - you know, the one owned by Elon Musk?
As we say, however, life for the astronauts hasn't been easy for the last 244 days, and speaking at a press conference on Friday, they revealed some of the lows of being stranded.
Despite 59-year-old Williams branding space her 'happy place', she admitted that she longed to be reunited with her family and two dogs.
Among the other issues they're forced to face on a daily basis is the loss of bone density, caused by microgravity.
As such, the pair are forced to conduct around two or more hours of exercise everyday, so as to strengthen their bones.
"Your joints don't hurt, which is quite nice," 62-year-old Wilmore explained.
The pair also spoke to Needham High School in Massachusetts on Monday (3 February), where Williams also revealed that life with no gravity meant that she'd lost the ability to carry out several basic tasks, admitting she can't remember how to walk.
"I've been up here long enough, right now I've been trying to remember what it's like to walk," she admitted.
"I haven't walked. I haven't sat down. I haven't laid down."
Her worrying admission came amid concerns about their pair's food rations, being that they have appeared increasingly thinner as time has gone on, which could be done to a decline in muscle mass.
Apparently, however, it's not all doom and gloom - especially not in the Space Station, with Williams insisting she and Wilmore are a-okay.
"There’s a lot of changes that go on up here. But it’s funny, I think there’s some rumours around out there that I’m losing weight and stuff," she addressed the concerns in November. "I’m actually right at the same amount."
And touching on her muscles, she added: "I think things shift around quite a bit. You’ve probably heard of a fluid shift, where folks in space, their heads look a little bigger because the fluid evens out along the body.
"But Butch [Wilmore] and I have been up here for a number of months, we’ve been on the workout gear. We’ve got a bike, we got a treadmill and we got weightlifting equipment.
"And I could definitely tell that weightlifting - which is not something I do all the time - has definitely changed me. My thighs are a little bigger, my butt is a little bigger, we do a lot of squats."