New photos of astronauts stuck in space without being able to return home spark health concerns
New photographs have been released of the astronauts who have spent over 150 days stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) and have sparked fears around their health.
Sunita 'Suni' Williams, 59, and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore, 61, embarked on their trip to the ISS onboard the Boeing's Starliner on 5 June for what was intended to be an eight-day mission.
Their spacecraft was hit with technical faults however, including thruster failures and helium leaks.
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They were then faced with two options - fly home on the faulty spacecraft or wait for SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to come pick them up.
Williams and Wilmore took the second option and have been up in space ever since.
In newly released pictures of the pair though, Williams' appearance has caused concerns over her health.
Speaking about the photos, pulmonologist Dr Vinay Gupta told the Daily Mail: “What you're seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurised cabin, for extended periods.
“Her cheeks appear a bit sunken - and usually it happens when you've had sort of total body weight loss.
“I think what I can discern by her face and her cheeks being sunken in is that [she] has probably been at a significant [calorie] deficit for a while.
“Based on what I'm at least seeing in the photo, I don't think she's quite at a... place where I say her life's in danger.
“But I don't think you can look at that photo and say she has sort of healthy body weight.”
Williams and Wilmore are set to return to Earth in February of 2025 as part of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
Earlier this year, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: "NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with [SpaceX’s] Crew-9 next February, and that Starliner will return uncrewed
"I want you to know that Boeing has worked very hard with Nasa to get the necessary data to make this decision.
"We want to further understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will serve as an important part of our assured crew access to the ISS."
Wilmore previously said that despite the issues with the spacecraft, he feels ‘very fortunate’ to be on the ISS.
As per The Independent, the astronaut said: “Obviously, when you have issues like we’ve had, there’s some changes that need to be made. Boeing’s on board with that. We’re all on board with that.
"Starliner’s crewed test flight was meant to push the edge of the envelope.
"And when you do things with spacecraft that have never been done before, just like Starliner, you’re going to find some things. In this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner."
He added: "There’s many cases in the past where there have not been other options.
"We were very fortunate that we have the Space Station and that we had the option to stay and we had the option to come back a different way."
In a statement to LADbible, NASA said: "All NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station undergo routine medical evaluations, have dedicated flight surgeons monitoring them, and are in good health."
Michael Slavin