On this handout picture offered by NASA, assist groups work on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov onboard on March 18, 2025, off the coast of Florida.
Keegan Barber/NASA by way of Getty Photographs
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Keegan Barber/NASA by way of Getty Photographs
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are lastly again on Earth after spending greater than 9 months in orbit on the Worldwide House Station, splashing down off the coast of Florida on Tuesday night.
The period of their time in house was unexpectedly lengthy after launching on June 5, 2024, with the mission to remain on the ISS for practically every week. On account of points with the Boeing Starliner flight to the house station, nonetheless, the return flight was delayed. In November, NASA’s chief well being and medical officer needed to push again towards tabloid rumors that the astronauts’ well being was deteriorating.
However their extended mission shouldn’t be the primary time astronaut crews have spent an extended period in house than deliberate, NASA says. Each Wilmore and Williams transitioned to “long-duration” standing early within the mission, so they might entry the station’s crew well being care system, the company tells NPR. A “complete reconditioning course of” can be in place for the astronauts.
Here’s a have a look at what the restoration course of will appear like for Wilmore and Williams, in addition to for different astronauts getting back from a stint in house.
A particular group of medical doctors
After Wilmore and Williams’ capsule landed, post-mission restoration and medical groups met the astronauts and transported them to NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston. Whereas there, they are going to endure “a progressive 45-day post-mission restoration program,” NASA says. Throughout this time, the crew can have medical and efficiency testing, take part in research and comply with a “structured reconditioning program.”
They’re going to spend two hours day by day with trainers, engaged on a personalised restoration plan to work again towards the health ranges that they had earlier than they left on their mission, NASA says.
“Usually, most crew members’ physiological techniques recuperate inside this timeframe,” based on the company.
Leland Melvin, who flew to the ISS on two separate missions in 2008 and 2009, the final with Wilmore, mentioned he was capable of get again to his baseline after being dwelling for a few month. He was a part of the 17th group of NASA astronauts with Williams and has logged over 565 hours in house, based on NASA. He’s additionally the creator of the youngsters’s guide Space Chasers. Nonetheless, he was not allowed to drive for every week to keep away from the opportunity of passing out or falling over whereas behind the wheel.
And at one level whereas nonetheless getting adjusted to being again on Earth, he forgot he may now not float.
“I used to be like, laying in mattress. I needed to go to the lavatory and I simply began pushing off my again considering, ‘I’ll float to the lavatory.’ And the sunshine was out and I am pushing up and I roll off the bed,” he says.
Dr. Natacha Chough, a NASA flight surgeon and assistant professor within the aerospace drugs division on the College of Texas Medical Department, oversees crew members’ well being care earlier than, throughout and after missions. She says one of many first sicknesses she appears for in astronauts upon return is movement illness.
“Your internal ear form of shuts off roughly in weightlessness,” Chough tells NPR. “So once you reintroduce that sense of gravity, it may be a little bit bit disorienting.”
Expedition 64 NASA astronaut Kate Rubins rests as NASA Flight Surgeon Natacha Chough, left, and Russian Nurse Raksana Batsmanova, proper, monitor her situation after she, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov landed their Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft in a distant space close to the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, April 17, 2021.
NASA/Invoice Ingalls/NASA
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NASA/Invoice Ingalls/NASA
Throughout the internal ear is the vestibular system, which is made up of sensory organs that assist with one’s sense of steadiness. In weightlessness, the system receives blended messages, making it tough to find out which method is up or down.
To assist his vestibular system readjust, Melvin says he needed to stroll in a sure method whereas he recovered.
“You are strolling in a straight line and you then begin doing a curve. You begin turning and your vestibular system is all whacked out and you may simply fall over,” Melvin tells NPR. “So, you stroll straight and you then flip. And you then stroll straight and you then flip.”
And whereas astronauts get medical consideration from flight surgeons as soon as they return from house, it takes a village to assist crews even earlier than the mission ends. There are groups who create a diet plan for astronauts earlier than their mission, physicians who monitor their well being whereas on the ISS and those that assist them readjust to household life.
“It is not simply flight surgeons, but additionally schedulers, nurses, trainers, psychologists, analysis scientists, radiation specialists, toxicologists, audiologists, and others who all work collectively throughout numerous phases of the mission to optimize crew well being and security,” Chough says.
Dangers of spaceflight
Astronauts Leland Melvin, STS-129 mission specialist, and Butch Wilmore, pilot, work on the aft flight deck of House Shuttle Atlantis throughout flight day two actions on Nov. 17, 2009.
NASA/JSC/NASA.gov
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NASA/JSC/NASA.gov
Being in house additionally carries a number of well being hazards, together with publicity to house radiation. An atmosphere with little gravity may weaken the bones.
“We undoubtedly observe muscle mass and bone mineral density preflight and postflight as a result of weightlessness is what I confer with as a ‘use it or lose it’ atmosphere,” Dr. Chough says. “Should you’re not often exercising in flight, your physique shouldn’t be going to expend the vitality to protect your muscle tissue and bones.”
To counter this, astronauts aboard the ISS do two and a half hours of each day power and cardio coaching. This additionally helps decrease bone and muscle loss, she says.
Melvin, who was additionally an athlete and NFL participant earlier than changing into an astronaut, says he lifted free weights to assist put together for spaceflight and labored out whereas on the ISS.
The impacts of being in house, particularly for lengthy intervals of time, on the physique are nonetheless being studied. Throughout a examine carried out on astronaut twins Mark and Scott Kelly, researchers discovered that whereas Scott was on the ISS, he quickly turned two inches taller.
Power weightlessness may trigger bodily fluids like blood to stand up towards one’s head, resulting in swelling within the mind and flattening of the again of the attention – each contributing to what’s often known as “spaceflight related neuro-ocular syndrome.” Some astronauts who develop this situation have gentle adjustments and in others it may trigger “vital outcomes,” based on NASA. And the long-term final result from the adjustments is unknown.
Astronauts do the work they do to search out out what the dangers of spaceflight are, Melvin says. He says he feels more healthy now that he has been to house as a result of he has “a newfound perspective on what it means to be a human being.”
“I went across the planet each 90 minutes. I noticed everybody that was, is and can be on planet Earth,” he says.
