The wife of Butch Wilmore, one of the NASA astronauts who was stranded in space for over nine months, has revealed one of the side effects he has been suffering from since his return to Earth.
Butch and Sunni made their long-awaited comeback to Earth last week, after spending nearly a year on the International Space Station, following a mission that was supposed to last just eight days.
Doctors have already warned that the duo are going to face a long road to recovery due to the likely loss of muscle mass and bone density they have experienced, despite the mandatory two hours of exercise both astronauts did each day.
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After going through the vigorous medical tests in NASA hospitals, Butch was able to return home to his wife Deanna and his two daughters. He is hoping to make his daughter's graduation next month, but it seems as if the 62-year-old isn't up to much other than resting right now.
"Barry does say gravity is not his friend right now. And you know the stamina is not there, and so they do have to rest and relax quite a bit because they're just not strong yet", his wife Deanna said.
Wilmore's wife also opened up about the moment the family was reunited with Barry, saying there was 'not a lot of talking, just a lot of hugging and enjoying the moment'.
The pair's daughter, Daryn, 19 years old, added online that her dad is is 'doing good, it’s rough, but he’s a trooper'.
According to NASA, both astronauts are undergoing a 45-day reconditioning programme, where they have to undergo two hours of physical training with specialised trainers.
Speaking to The Guardian, Swinburne University astrophysicist Alan Duffy described what a continuous lack of gravity can do a person's body.
He wrote: "The lack of gravity causes significant, and irreparable, bone density loss. It also causes muscles to waste in your arms, legs, trunk and elsewhere, including your heart, which, because it doesn’t have to pump blood against gravity, has to work much less hard."
The astronaut's body also builds up fluids in their heads, leading to what Duffy described as a feeling akin to a 'constant cold'.
The fact that both were able to walk again less than 24 hours after splashdown is certainly promising, but the radiation they were exposed to can cause permanent DNA damage. An experiment involving twins found that the one sent up to space mostly recovered the damage after six months, but that some genes had been permanently changed.
In addition to their 45-day programme though, they can also look forward to receiving an invite to the White House from President Donald Trump.
Additional words by Joshua Nair
James Moorhouse