THE SUN
NASA astronauts who returned to Earth after spending nine months in space now face a hellish journey to readjust to life with gravity.
Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams returned home in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft alongside two rescue mission astronauts last night when the capsule landed off the Florida coast.
The capsule, named Freedom, dramatically splashed down in the sea near Tallahassee, Florida – as dolphins majestically swam around the floating spacecraft.
It ended an unexpectedly long mission which started in June 2024 and lasted 286 days.
But they now face a long journey to recover from what they describe as “chicken legs and baby feet”.
Experts say both Williams and Wilmore will be unable to walk on their own for a long time because of living in low gravity for nine months.
Their bodies may have also changed significantly due to the out-of-the-world living conditions.
Astronauts who spend even a month in space can start losing bone density and their muscles begin to waste away.
They can lose basic motor control and feel symptoms like nausea and motion sickness.
A lack of gravity also affects the human body’s ability to run the immune and cardiovascular systems.
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