Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore are getting reacquainted with gravity one step at a time. In fact, the astronauts—who returned to Earth March 18 after an extended nine-month stay at the International Space Station—didn’t physically step off SpaceX Dragon capsule upon touchdown in Florida. Instead, they were wheeled off the spacecraft on stretchers.
While the practice may seem unusual, it’s actually standard NASA protocol for all returning space travelers as they typically can’t walk right away upon their return. “A lot of them don't want to be brought out on a stretcher,” former NASA senior scientist John DeWitt told Live Science , “but they're told they have to be.” Earlier in the astronauts’ ISS stay—which was only meant to last eight days—Williams described the physical effects of living without gravity as she spoke to students at Needham High School in Massachusetts, her alma mater.
“I've been up here long enough right now I've been trying to remember what it's like to walk,” she told the students in January, per CBS affiliate WBZ-TV . “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.
” Williams and Wilmore’s June 2024 mission was extended due to various technical issues with the pair’s Boeing Starliner, leading NASA to send the shuttle back to Earth without its crew . While Williams described the extension as “a littl.