Featured Image Credit: Anadolu / Contributor / Getty
After spending over nine months in space you'd feel like you deserve a bit of a break, but things are far from over for 'stranded' astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, as NASA has revealed what's next for the pair.
Williams and Wilmore was the victims of an unfortunate collection of technical issues, starting first with the Boeing Starliner that they flew into outer space in.
Shortly after reaching the International Space Station it was understood that the Starliner suffered issues with various leaks, faulty thrusters, and a valve that failed to close, leading to the ship returning to Earth unmanned for repairs.
They were then waiting for the SpaceX Crew-10 mission to change over with them, as NASA protocol requires there to always be an astronaut present on the iSS, with the previous team performing a handover so there are no gaps in information.
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This led to them staying on board the ISS for a staggering 285 days - 277 days more than they were initially planned to be there - and they thankfully landed safely off the coast of Florida on Wednesday evening after a lengthy 17-hour journey from space.
Unfortunately for the astronauts who likely want to just return to normal life at this point, they had to be immediately stretchered off to a medical facility as spending time in space can have significant effects on your body, especially your muscle mass and bone density.
Concerning photos shortly after their landing also indicate that time at the medical facility is necessary for one of the pair, although both Williams and Wilmore, alongside their fellow astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, were seen walking without assistance.
In terms of what's next, they'll now spend around six weeks at the aforementioned medical facility undergoing a 'brutal' physical rehabilitation program that will restore their muscles to a 'normal' state and allow them to readjust to living with gravity which can affect even basic human functions like walking.
It can take at least a few weeks before they'll be medically ready for life on Earth again, but former astronauts have illustrated that it can take several months and even over a year in some cases before you begin to feel 'normal' again - especially after longer stays in space.
One major relief is that soon after they'll be finally allowed to go home to their families and relax, as per Sky News, and while Williams has described the ISS as her 'happy place' there's no doubt that she'll be delighted to finally be back home.
For Williams at the very least this will also likely mark her last visit into outer space, as she was saddened to reveal the fact in the days prior to her return home.
"I don't want to lose that spark of inspiration when I leave," Suni detailed in an interview with the BBC, "so I'm going to have to bottle it somehow."
Despite their nine month stay on the ISS being far beyond the recommended maximum of six months, Williams and Wilmore still didn't come close to one other American astronaut who spend nearly 100 days longer in space than the pair.
