Amid growing concerns over Sunita Williams’ health, NASA recently clarified that all astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are in “good health”.
Jimmy Russell, spokesperson for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, told the Daily Mail that all NASA astronauts on the ISS undergo regular medical checkups and are monitored by dedicated flight surgeons.
“All are in good health,” he said.
The space agency’s statement comes amid media reports claiming that Williams is facing a health crisis after a long stay on the ISS.
A photo of the NASA astronaut making a pepperoni pizza is also doing the rounds on social media, showing her to have lost a lot of weight. According to a Seattle-based pulmonologist, Williams looks “slim” in the picture, who said she is facing natural stress due to staying at very high altitudes for a long time.
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“Her cheeks appear a little sunken and that’s usually what happens when you lose a whole lot of body weight. ‘I think from the sunkenness of her face and her cheeks I can tell she’s probably been suffering from a calorie deficiency for some time,'” the doctor told the Daily Mail.
Williams and her fellow astronaut Barry Wilmore have been on the ISS since June. The ISS mission, which was supposed to be eight days long, got stretched for months due to a Starliner spacecraft malfunction. The astronauts will now return home in February next year.
On October 26, a NASA astronaut – part of Crew-8, was hospitalised after returning from a nearly eight-month deployment on the ISS. According to NASA, astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin were flown together to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida. After medical evaluation at the hospital, one of the astronauts was kept under observation as a precaution. However, NASA said the astronaut’s details were not disclosed to protect the crew member’s medical privacy.
The astronaut was discharged a day later in “good health”, the US space agency said.
