Stranded astronaut Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams says she’s trying to ‘remember how to walk’ after spending nine months in space.

Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore were originally sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024 for what was meant to be just an eight-day mission.

However, due to technical issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, they’ve been stuck in orbit for 281 days and counting.

The pair have been stranded in space since June 2024 (MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/Contributor/Getty Images)

The latest rescue mission to bring the pair home on Wednesday (March 12) was aborted at the last minute when Elon Musk’s space company reported a hydraulic system issue in the launch tower.

This follows another postponed launch in February, which was delayed due to a problem with the rocket’s clamp arms.

While astronauts go through rigorous training (like ‘death simulations‘) to prepare for spaceflight, many people don’t realize how much they have to adjust when coming back to Earth.

Without gravity, simple everyday tasks like walking, sitting, or even lying down aren’t as easy as they are back here.

Of course, your body gets used to this over time, but that makes reintegration into ‘normal’ life even harder, and stranded astronaut Suni Williams has explained her own experiences of that.

“I’ve been up here long enough right now I’ve been trying to remember how to walk,” Williams told students at Needham High School, which she herself attended, as reported by People.

“I haven’t walked. I haven’t sat down. I haven’t laid down. You don’t have to. You can just close your eyes and float where you are right here.”

The astronauts have spent nine months on the International Space Station (SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images)

The two NASA astronauts have had to spend holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving in space and even resort to eating soup made out of their own urine – an unappealing but probable standard part of ISS life. Yet their biggest challenges might still be ahead of them.

Despite remaining positive and some experts claiming that they are ‘not stranded,’ many have worried about the pair’s health state. Photos have been released showing their gaunt physical appearance however, NASA has reassured everyone that they’re both okay.

Williams also admitted that she never expected to spend this much time in space and that it was ‘a little bit of a shock.’ She added: “We knew that it would be probably a month or so, honestly. But the extended stay was just a little bit different.”

The next NASA-SpaceX rescue mission launch has been rescheduled for March 14, so fingers crosses all goes well.

The elongated saga of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore could soon be coming to an end, as NASA is finally due to rescue the pair of astronauts. Williams and Wilmore have become the face of space after they were marooned on the International Space Station last year. Although Williams has reiterated they aren’t stranded, their eight-day mission aboard the ISS was massively extended due to a fault with their Boeing Starliner capsule, which forced it to fly back without them.

As the days tick by, Williams and Wilmore have currently been aboard the ISS for 272 days…and counting.

Williams and Wilmore are finally set to be rescued in March 2025 (NASA)

Things are finally wrapping up following calls from President Donald Trump for Elon Musk to go and get them, Musk claiming they were abandoned by the Biden administration, and the world’s richest man calling one famed astronaut an ‘idiot’.

SpaceX‘s long-awaited Crew-10 launch is scheduled for March 12, with the dynamic duo finally set to get their feet back on terra firma. After this, there are expected to be some major adjustments to life back on Earth.

Williams has explained the brutal daily regime they’re undertaking in space, involving two hours of exercise to stop help try and combat damage to their bones and muscle.

We already knew there would be a physical toll trying to return to ‘normal’ life, but speaking to DailyMail.com, doctors have explained a little more about what Williams and Wilmore might have to deal with.

As soon as Williams and Wilmore emerge from their capsule, they’re expected to be put on stretchers and rushed away for medical examination.

Dr Vinay Gupta is a pulmonologist and Air Force veteran who claims it could take up to six weeks of brutal regimens to regain their strength.

This will start as soon as they’re back on Earth and initially focus on walking, as well as flexibility and muscle strengthening. The second phase of the 45-day regime involves proprioceptive exercises and cardio reconditioning. The third and final phase is the longest, focusing on returning them to peak physical performance via ‘functional development training’.

Given that Williams and Wilmore have been exposed to the equivalent of one year’s of Earth radiation during a single week in space, Gupta added: “‘If I was their physician, I would think about a more proactive strategy for cancer screening…We want to take a different approach here, given that they had such a unique exposure history.”

With research suggesting that an astronaut aged between 30 and 50 can lose about half their strength following a six-month period in space, biomedical engineer Dr. John Jaquish goes on to explain the effects of low gravity on bone and muscle loss: “The human body needs the Earth’s gravitational pull, and in an absence of that, a lot of things are not functioning correctly.”

Despite their exercise regime, Gupta added: “The reality is, they’re effectively getting a fraction of the sort of exercise that we all take for granted just by walking in [Earth’s] gravity.

“Invariably, despite them doing all the right things (which I know they are), you’re going to see a decrease in muscle mass and strength — no question.”

Although most astronauts can get back to their pre-mission fitness after just 45 days, it can sometimes take months or even years to return to where they were.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has suggested deorbiting the International Space Station within two years.

NASA has plans to crash the space station into the Pacific Ocean, which they aim to be done by the end of this decade, of which they have awarded a contract for $843 million to Musk’s SpaceX.

Although NASA have stated they want to deorbit the space station by the end of the decade, Musk is now suggesting he would like to deorbit the ISS within as little as two years.

As part of the mission to bring down the ISS, SpaceX will be developing a U.S. Deorbit vehicle that will be used to crash the space station back down to earth, where following a controlled re-entry, it should land safely in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

While Musk has publicly stated that the International Space Station “has very little incremental utility.” stranded NASA astronaut Sunita Williams disagrees, claiming now isn’t the right time to get rid of the space station. Not only has Williams argued that the ISS shouldn’t be destroyed before 2030, she has also stated, “This place is ticking. It’s just really amazing. So I would say we’re actually in our prime right now.”.

Captain Sunita Williams (Joe Scarnici / Getty)

Contrary to Musk’s statement about the station having served its purpose, Williams has suggested that NASA would be wasting tax payers money by not allowing the “word class science that this laboratory is capable of” to continue.

Suntia Williams is one of two stranded NASA astronauts currently stranded on the International Space Station. Williams and her fellow stranded astronaut Butch Wilmore were delayed in retuning home to earth following a technical glitch in Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, but are expected to finally return home at the end of this month.

NASA’s Boeing CST-100 Starliner Spacecraft (Paul Hennessy / Getty)

The ISS was originally launched back in November 1998 and has since grown to an impressive 16 modules, weighing more than a whopping 4,30,000 kg.

Due to the sheer size of the space station, the mission requires careful planning and precision to make sure the stations orbit is slowly lowered and steered away from populated areas and into the ocean.

Elon Musk might be looking to take the space station out of commission within the next two years, but with so much planning and development required to pull it off, and Suntia Williams calling for him to hold off, there’s every chance the ISS could still be up in space until closer to NASA’s 2030 deadline.

Spending months in space might sound like the ultimate adventure, but for NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, the experience came with an unexpected emotional toll.

Williams, who was only supposed to be on an eight-day mission, has now been in space for over 270 days after a series of technical failures left her and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).

Responding to a press question from the ISS on as part of a pre-departure news conference, from 6:06 in the video above: Williams revealed: “the hardest part of being stuck in space wasn’t the weightlessness or the isolation — it was the uncertainty of when she’d be able to come home”.

“The hardest part is having the folks on the ground not know exactly when we’re coming back. It’s been a rollercoaster for them – probably more so than for us,” she added.

Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5, 2024, for what was supposed to be a quick trip to the ISS. But things quickly went south when the spacecraft experienced multiple technical failures.

NASA later deemed it too unsafe to bring them back, forcing the astronauts to stay aboard the station while alternative plans were made. Starliner was eventually sent back to Earth without them in September, leaving them quite literally without a ride home.

Now, after months of uncertainty, NASA has confirmed that the two astronauts will finally return to Earth on March 19 or 20. But instead of Boeing bringing them back, they’ll be catching a lift with Elon Musk’s SpaceX on the Crew-9 return flight.

SpaceX & Tesla CEO, Elon Musk (Getty Images)

The extended stay has sparked major controversy back on Earth, with Elon Musk suggesting that the delay was politically motivated. Former US President Donald Trump echoed the claims, accusing the Biden administration of deliberately holding them in space longer than necessary.

Despite the swirling speculation, Williams and Wilmore have largely avoided getting dragged into the politics of it all. When asked about the controversy, Williams simply responded, “We know what we’ve lived up here. We have the utmost respect for everyone trying to get us home.”

Wilmore, however, admitted that he and Williams have been kept in the dark regarding the politics of their situation. Referring to Musk’s claim, he said: “That’s information that we simply don’t have, so I believe him”.

For now, the focus remains on getting the astronauts back safely. After spending nearly a year in space, their long-awaited return is finally in sight.