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One of NASA’s stranded astronauts, Sunita Williams, has revealed that she has lost the ability to perform several basic tasks after spending eight months in space. Williams, 59, and her crewmate, Barry Wilmore, 62, were supposed to spend eight days on the International Space Station (ISS) when they embarked on their mission on June 5, but the Boeing capsule that took them malfunctioned and left them stranded.
Williams admitted during a video call with students at Needham High School in Massachusetts that she had forgotten what it’s like to walk, sit, or lie down, as she had spent 234 days in microgravity.
The capsule has since returned to Earth empty, leaving Williams and Wilmore stuck on the ISS until at least late March when they can catch a ride home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 spacecraft.
President Donald Trump has weighed in on the situation, saying that the two astronauts are “virtually abandoned by the Biden administration” and asking Elon Musk and SpaceX to “go get” them. Musk has vowed to bring the astronauts home as soon as possible.
Williams and Wilmore’s bodies have taken a toll from the extended stay in space. According to NASA, for every month in space, astronauts’ weight-bearing bones become roughly one percent less dense, and their muscles, which are usually activated by simply moving around on Earth, weaken because they no longer need to work as hard.
When astronauts return from long-term space missions, it’s not uncommon for them to be unable to walk under their own power. Williams and Wilmore will have spent 10 months on the ISS, two months longer than a standard long-term ISS mission, if they return in late March as expected.
Musk and Trump’s recent statements suggest that the timing of Williams and Wilmore’s rescue mission could change again, potentially bringing them home sooner. However, neither SpaceX, NASA, nor the White House have made any official public statements regarding a revised return date for the astronauts.