Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth on Wednesday after 9 months. All the astronauts have made a successful landing on earth. The entire team is undergoing medical examination. NASA has declared the entire mission successful in a press conference. NASA said that everything happened as per plan and all the astronauts are completely safe.
Steve Stich, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that the astronauts who returned to Earth are in good health and are currently under the supervision of a team of doctors. The astronauts will stay on the recovery ship for some time. Medical checkup of the astronauts is being done and they are being thoroughly diagnosed.
These astronauts went to the space station in June last year for a mission of just eight days, but the plane malfunctioned and they got stuck there. After more than nine months, their return has finally been possible. Now, the question arises that if the astronauts who went with the preparation of an eight-day mission had to stay in space for nine months, then how their food was arranged.
After all, what were Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore eating in space for so long? According to reports, last year that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were eating pizza, roast chicken and shrimp cocktail on the International Space Station (ISS). However, due to limited amounts of fresh produce, the crew members limited its intake to maintain a nutritious diet.
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There is a Shortage of Fresh Food in Space
The astronauts in space were getting limited amounts of powdered milk, pizza, roast chicken, shrimp cocktail and cereal. NASA doctors were monitoring that the astronauts keep getting the necessary calories. NASA sources say that initially fresh fruits, vegetables, roast chicken and pizza were available but these were over in three months.
After this, for a long time Sunita and Butch had to make do with powdered milk, dehydrated casseroles and freeze-dried soup. The urine and sweat of the space station astronauts were also recycled for use. The advanced filtration system of the ISS ensures that not a single drop of water is wasted and is recycled.
But there is no Shortage of Food in the Space Station
Experts say that there may be a shortage of fresh food in space but there is no shortage of food. There is enough food for an extended mission in space. About 3.8 pounds of food is available for an astronaut every day on the ISS. Apart from this, additional supplies are available for unexpected mission extensions. NASA relies on its 530-gallon water recycling tank and emergency food reserves for the crew stranded in space.
Food is prepared on magnetic trays with metal utensils to avoid food floating. Giving information about this mission, Joel Montalbano, Deputy Associate Administrator of NASA Space Operations Mission Directors, has said that Sunita and Butch did research for 900 hours while on the ISS and conducted 150 scientific experiments during this time. He has expressed hope that these experiments will prove helpful for NASA astronauts.
Home sweet home. 🏠
— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 19, 2025
NASA’s SpaceX #Crew9 touched down at Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston at 11:19 pm CDT, March 18, after their @Space_Station mission and successful splashdown earlier this afternoon.
Welcome home, Butch, Suni, Nick, & Aleksandr! pic.twitter.com/fbgWiU9ird
How much allowance will Sunita Williams get?
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, as well as NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, have returned to Earth after a nine-month long mission. The astronauts were safely landed off the coast of Florida by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Originally, the mission was only scheduled to last eight days. However, due to technical problems with the Starliner capsule, Williams and Wilmore were stuck in space.
Williams and Wilmore have spent about 286 days in space. According to Wion’s report, Cady Coleman, a former NASA astronaut, said that NASA does not give any additional overtime or special pay to its astronauts for such missions. However, they are given a nominal allowance of $4 per day in addition to the normal salary. So, they are going to get about $1144 for spending 286 days in space. No official information has been revealed by NASA regarding this.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX gets the responsibility of return
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were reassigned by NASA to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission to bring them back safely to Earth. In September, SpaceX sent a Dragon spacecraft to bring them back, with only two crew members instead of four, to accommodate the stranded astronauts. The Dragon capsule was launched for the mission on a Falcon 9 rocket. Crew-10 has replaced Crew-9 on the International Space Station.
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These are Few Heath Concerns after Space Return
Prerna Chandra, Project Manager of Delhi’s Nehru Planetarium, said, “Williams is a big name in the field of astronauts and she has returned to Earth after a very long time. If we talk about her health, then this is also a big issue because we live in micro gravity in space. There is no gravity of any kind. In such a situation, many changes take place inside the body, problems occur which hit the gravity after coming to Earth and we see it more here. Due to this, astronauts need rehabilitation. She was in space for a long period of nine months, so she will also need a long time for recovery.”
How will the Body Accommodate after Landing on Earth?
Astronauts will face health implications on their return after nine months in space and will undergo a 45-day rehabilitation programme arranged by NASA. Puffy heads, chicken legs, taller space height and reduced density – as Crew-9 astronauts face all these health implications on their return to Earth after nine months in space, they will undergo a 45-day rehabilitation programme to prepare for gravity.
A stay at the International Space Station can have various effects on the astronauts’ bodies in terms of aerobic capacity, muscular strength, power, endurance, stamina, bone, balance, agility, coordination, orthostatic tolerances, proprioception, neurovestibular function and flexibility. These are attributed to microgravity and are consistent with deficits seen in terrestrial, de-conditioning individuals.