Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for over five months, appears to have lost weight, sparking concerns about her health. In a recent photo, Ms Williams looked gaunt, with sunken cheeks and a thinner frame. NASA insists the weight loss is not due to any deficiencies in her diet; it’s a result of the microgravity environment aboard the ISS.
Ms Williams and her fellow astronaut, Butch Wilmore, have been surviving on a limited yet sufficient variety of food provided on the space station. According to a specialist familiar with the Starliner mission, their meals include freeze-dried foods, such as breakfast cereals with powdered milk, pizza, tuna, shrimp cocktails, roast chicken and dehydrated stews. One notable shortcoming of their diet is the lack of fresh produce, replenished by the ISS only once every three months.
“There’s fresh fruit at first, but as the three months continues that goes away – and their fruits and vegetables are packaged or freeze-dried,” the specialist was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
The astronauts’ daily food consumption is carefully monitored by doctors, with each astronaut being allotted 3.8 pounds (around 1.7 kg) of food per day, along with extra supplies in case of mission extensions. Despite the absence of fresh produce, the ISS’s recycling system ensures no food goes to waste, even converting the astronauts’ sweat and urine into fresh water for cooking and hydration.
Still, health concerns about the astronauts’ well-being remain, particularly as the strain of living in space begins to take a visible toll. Ms Williams, 59, has dismissed the concerns, attributing her weight loss to fluid shifting in her body due to the zero-gravity environment. She said in a video interview, “There’s some rumours around out there that I’m losing weight and stuff. No, I’m actually right at the same amount.”
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, originally scheduled for an eight-day mission, have been stranded on the ISS for five months due to technical issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft and are now expected to return to Earth in February 2024.