NASA astronauts stranded in space for nine months finally emerge after months of intense therapy
It's been months now since NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned from their time 'stranded' upon the International Space Station, but they've only just emerged from the rigorous physical rehabilitation required by anyone who comes back from a trip to space.
It was 285 days, or just over nine whole months, that Williams and Wilmore were stuck upon the International Space Station (ISS) in what was supposed to be just a short eight day mission.
Complications with their Boeing Starliner flight meant that they couldn't use it to return, and delays with the NASA-issued SpaceX return flight - which CEO Elon Musk claims to be a fault of the Biden administration - only further delayed their trip back home.
Thankfully the pair eventually made it back on March 18, 2025, after President Trump asked Musk to 'go get' the pair, and their physical health appeared better than expected even with a few worrying photographs along the way.
Why did Williams and Wilmore have to do physical therapy?
The stress was far from over though, as the reality of spending so much time in a low gravity environment forced them to take part in lengthy post-mission physical therapy sessions, where doctors also studied the effects of the nine month trip on their bodies.
One major consequence of spending so much time in space is the signficantly reduced strain your muscles encounter, as the low gravity environment requires them to work far less.
Even several-hour-long daily exercise sessions aren't enough to keep up with the effects space has on your body, and it's a big reason why many became concerned about Williams' 'gaunt' appearance in photos.
It can also affect some internal organs like your heart which also function as muscles, and this can prove troubling if you don't undergo the proper physical rehabilitation to bring you back up to full strength when returning to Earth.
What issues did the stranded astronauts have after returning to Earth?
As reported by Reuters, it is only this week that Williams and Wilmore have emerged from the NASA rehab facility, and they've explained the many issues both ran in to when reacclimatising to gravity on Earth.
"Right now, we're just coming off of the rehab portion of our return," Butch Wilmore explained to Reuters in a new interview. "Gravity stinks for a period, and that period varies for different people, but eventually you get over those neurovestibular balance type of issues."
Fascinatingly, one strange consequence of living in space returned to Wilmore almost immediately once their return shuttle landed into the ocean. He revealed that he had back and neck pain before heading into space, but this disappeared for the period that he was on the ISS.
He explained that this is because "you don't have any stress on your body," but it wasn't all good news upon his return to Earth. "We're still floating in the capsule in the ocean," Wilmore recounted while laughing, "and my neck starts hurting, while we hadn't even been extracted yet."
For Suni Williams, many of the difficulties she encountered back on Earth revolved around fatigue, as she reported extreme tiredness - likely due to the difference in weight your body now feels when subjected to gravity.
This made it difficult for her to get up in the mornings, but she eventually reached a point where things began to feel normal again. "Then I'm up at four in the morning," she explained, "and I'm like, 'Aha! I'm back'."
Both astronauts have expressed their willingness to return back to space as soon as possible though, although they'd likely wish that going through the physical rehabilitation program all over again wasn't a necessity.