Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts who remained on the International Space Station last year, remained on Earth after returning to Earth in March, appearing from weeks of physical therapy to working with Boeing and various NASA programs.
“Now, we're just starting from the recovery part that we're returning,” Wilmore, 62, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “Grain stinks over a period of time, a period that varies from person to person, but ultimately you can overcome those issues of vertical nerve balance.”
Last year, Wilmore and Williams set out for an eight-day Starliner test flight that expanded into space for nine months, and he had to reread their muscles, balance and other Earth basics that lived on the 45-day Earth.
The astronaut duo spends at least two hours a day of astronaut force and reviews officials within NASA's medical department, while doing a juggling workload through Boeing's Starliner program (NASA's NASA's Space Station Unit and Agent Researchers in Houston).
“It's a little whirlwind,” Williams, 59, said in an interview. “Because we have an obligation to everyone we work with.”
Williams said some of her altitude side effects were much slower, and she felt tired later in the recovery and dozens of muscles were reinvigorated. It made it difficult for her to wake up early like she loved the morning until a week ago.
She said, “Then I get up at four in the morning and I'm like, ahhh! I'm back.”
He said Wilmore had some problems with his back and neck before heading to space and could not turn to the side all the time. It all disappeared in the “you don’t have stress on your body” space.
When he returned in March, gravity greeted him with the pain in his neck that he had left on Earth.
He smiled and said, “We are still floating in the capsules of the ocean, my neck is starting to hurt and we are not even extracted.”
The human body is not for flying for thousands of years in the gravity of the earth's surface.
Over time, the lack of gravity triggers a series of physical effects, such as muscle atrophy or cardiovascular metastasis, which may lead to chain reactions that change in other health conditions. The solar radiation in a space that is confined in a smaller space without protecting the Earth's atmosphere has other effects.
Starliner Problem
Propulsion systems issues on Boeing’s Starliner forced NASA to bring the capsule back last year without crew and fold two astronauts into a normal long-running schedule on the ISS.
Boeing has filed $2 billion in allegations against its Starliner Development, facing an imminent decision by NASA to carry a spacecraft that has not been revoked before releasing humans. Boeing spent $410 million on similar undefeated tasks in 2022 after a failed test in 2019.
Williams said Reflying Starliner Unwewed “seems to be a logical thing,” compared to Elon Musk's SpaceX and Russian capsules, which drove the unegged mission before putting the humans on board. Williams added that she and NASA are pushing for the result.
“I think it's the right path,” Williams said.
NASA officials said the results of Starliner tests planned throughout the summer are expected to determine whether the spacecraft can fly humans in the next flight.
(Reported by Joey Roulette; Edited by Jamie Freed)
