14/11/2024
Stranded NASA astronaut Sunita Williams finally breaks silence about frightening weight loss in video from space
The stranded NASA astronaut at the center of growing health fears has finally broken her silence in a video recorded from space.
Health experts and NASA insiders had raised concerns that Sunita Williams, 59, was rapidly losing weight after photos appeared to show her looking 'gaunt' earlier this month, after spending over 150 days stuck on the International Space Station.
But Williams hit back at the 'rumors' in a live video published by NASA today, claiming that she has actually put on muscle.
'My thighs are a little bit bigger, my butt is a little bit bigger. We do a lot of squats,' she said.
She added that she is the same weight as when she launched to the ISS in June, and bizarrely claimed the apparent change in her appearance was due to 'fluid shift.'
'I think things shift around quite a bit, you probably heard of a fluid shift,' Williams said.
'Folks in space you know, their heads look a little bit bigger because the fluid evens out along the body.'
During spaceflight, weightlessness instantly shifts blood and fluids from the lower portion of the body to the upper areas, which can sometimes result in a puffy pace and thinner legs.
Williams and her crewmate Barry Wilmore, 61, have been living on the ISS for five months after Boeing's faulty Starliner spacecraft was deemed unsafe to return them to Earth.
The mission was initially only supposed to be eight days but the astronauts won't return until February 2025.
Williams spoke with the New England Sports Network Clubhouse Kids Show Tuesday while more than 250 miles above Earth's surface.
During the interview, she addressed health concerns, calling them 'rumors,' and discussed her food intake, such as dining on a Turkish fish stew with olives and rice.
Williams did not provide details about her caloric intake while aboard the ISS.
A photo taken September 24 initially sparked health fears. A doctor Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and veteran said at the time her cheeks looked 'sunken', possibly as a result of rapid weight loss.