NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) have been pictured with their Thanksgiving Day meals – amid growing concerns about their health.
Sunita Williams, 59, and Butch Wilmore, 61, who have been stuck in space for 175 days, revealed they will be tucking into Brussels sprouts, pumpkin and smoked turkey that was dehydrated before heading to the ISS.
“Our crew here just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family that are on Earth and everyone that supports us,” Williams said in a video.
The NASA astronauts have raised concerns among the public and officials within the space agency about their dramatic weight loss during their extended stay in orbit.
Williams sparked fears about her weight in an image from September, with doctors telling DailyMail.com that she looked ‘thin’.
And NASA insiders revealed last month that their medical team was monitoring Wilmore for similar reasons.
Williams and Wilmore were joined in the video by astronauts Nick Haag and Don Pettit to share their holiday menu with friends and family back home.
“Our meal might look a little different,” Haag admitted, as about a half-dozen sealed white packages floated up in microgravity, containing “all the things we’re going to enjoy on Thanksgiving.”
“Brussels sprouts, pumpkin, apples and herbs, and smoked turkey,” explained NASA astronaut Nick Haag (below left), now on his third trip aboard the ISS, as he opened the sealed white packages of the space crew’s orbital feast floated in. microgravity. ‘It’s going to be wonderful’
Smiling behind The Hague (bottom left) in the space station’s holiday broadcast were the two NASA astronauts (top row) who have been stuck on the ISS since June – after the inaugural crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft suffered malfunctions and gas leaks
ISS astronauts subsist mainly on dehydrated food in vacuum-packed pouches that must be rehydrated – and reheated if necessary – in an airplane-like machine before consumption.
As a byproduct of the lab’s fuel cells, water is an abundant source, but dehydrated food also helps reduce weight on the space station, NASA said.
Williams provided more details Wednesday about the crew’s Thanksgiving menu, which included green beans, mushrooms, mashed potatoes and an apple cobbler dessert.
“Our flight control teams have given us tomorrow off, so our plans, as usual, are to get up and train, do the Turkey Trot, watch a little Macy’s (Thanksgiving) Day Parade,” she shared. NBC News.
However, Williams emphasized that she does not consider herself “stranded” in space, adding that NASA has a plan in place in case she or another astronaut aboard the ISS needs to return to Earth.
“Our mission control team and management always had the option that we would come home,” she said. “So yeah, we came here with Starliner.
Above, the stranded NASA astronauts during a pizza meal on September 24, 2024. One doctor at the time raised concerns about Sunita’s health, claiming this image showed her “thin.” Williams claims she actually gained muscle mass aboard the ISS, blaming it on the ‘fluid shift’
“We’ll be back with a Dragon, but there’s always been a plan for how we’d get home.”
Williams and Willmore have been stuck on the ISS since Starliner took them there on June 6.
While Starliner returned to Earth without a crew on September 7, the duo continues to wait for SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, which will pick them up from the ISS and return them home no later than February 2025.
However, many studies have shown that long periods of time in space can lead to dramatic weight loss.
During long-duration ISS missions, crews can typically lose about five percent of their initial body weight, mainly due to loss of muscle and bone density that occurs naturally due to microgravity.
According to a NASA official who asked not to be named, Wilmore “had a lot more mass at the beginning,” standing 6 feet tall and weighing more than 210 pounds.
‘SOh, it’s not that big of a deal,” this employee told the newspaper New York Post.
Despite what seemed obvious to observers watching NASA’s video feeds, Williams came out earlier this month to deny “rumors” that she had lost weight during her unexpectedly long stay on the ISS.
Williams claimed she actually gained muscle mass aboard the ISS, and pointed to “fluid shift” to explain her appearance in the photos in question.