Stranded NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been in space for over nine months due to a technical glitch in Boeing Starliner, are all set to return to Earth no sooner than March 19, but significant bodily changes over the period of time could turn out to be a painful affair for them. NASA, in a joint mission with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk owned SpaceX’s Crew Dragon-10, are preparing to bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth and it has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on March 16. Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore reached the ISS aboard a Boeing Starliner capsule in June 2024 for a little over a week mission. But the two US astronauts got stuck in space and were unable to return to Earth due to the concerns surrounding the technical safety of the Boeing Starliner. According to former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore might experience trouble in walking as and when they return to Earth, as he claimed that due to prolonged exposure to space walking, astronauts develop “baby feet”, reports stated. Chiao said that due to the absence of air and gravity, astronauts experience weightlessness in space and it leads to calluses on the feet to disappear. “You basically lose the thick part of your skin,” Chiao added. The @SpaceX #Crew10 members joined the station's Exp 72 crew after the hatch opened at 12:35am ET on Sunday beginning a long-duration space research mission. — International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 16, 2025 Apart from baby feet, due to an absence of gravity, often irreparable bone density loss is reported when exposed to space for a longer period of time. NASA states that for every month spent in space, the weight bearing bones of astronauts become about one percent less dense, if proper precautions are not taken.
