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 feasting on brussels sprouts, butternut squash and smoked turkey that was dehydrated before heading to the ISS.
‘Our crew up here just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family who are down on Earth and everyone who is supporting us,’ Williams said in a video.
The NASA astronauts have drawn concern from both the public and officials within the space agency over 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 ‘gaunt.’
And NASA insiders revealed last month that their medical team was monitoring Wilmore for similar reasons.
Williams and Wilmore were joined by astronauts Nick Hague and Don Pettit in the video to share their holiday menu with friends and family back home.
‘Our meal may look a little bit different,’ Hague admitted as roughly half a dozen, sealed white packages floated upward into microgravity, containing ‘all the things that we’re going to enjoy on Thanksgiving.’
‘Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, apples and spice, and smoked turkey,’ NASA astronaut Nick Hague (bottom left), now on his third tour aboard the ISS, explained as he let the sealed white packages of the space crew’s orbital feast float into microgravity. ‘It’s going to be delicious’
Smiling behind Hague (bottom left) in the space station’s holiday transmission 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 faced malfunctions and gas leaks
ISS astronauts subsist mainly on dehydrated foods in vacuum-packed pouches that need to be rehydrated – and if needed to be warmed – in an plane-style machine before consumption.
As a byproduct of the orbiting laboratory’s fuel cells, water is a plentiful source, but dehydrated food also helps reduce weight on the space station, NASA has said.
Williams offered more details on the crew’s orbital Thanksgiving menu Wednesday, including green beans, mushrooms, mashed potatoes and a dessert of apple cobbler.
‘Our flight control teams gave us tomorrow off, so our plans are, as usual, get up and workout, do the Turkey trot, watch a little Macy’s [Thanksgiving] Day Parade,’ she told NBC News.
Williams, however, emphasized that she does not consider herself ‘stranded’ in space, adding that NASA has a plan in place in the event that she or any other astronaut aboard the ISS needs to get back to Earth.
‘Our mission control team and our management has always had an option for us to come home,’ she said. ‘So yeah, we came up here on Starliner.
Above the stranded NASA astronauts during a September 24, 2024 pizza meal. One doctor at the time raised concerns about Sunita’s health, claiming this image showed her looking ‘gaunt.’ Williams claims she has actually gained muscle on board the ISS, blaming the look on ‘fluid shift’
‘We’re coming back on a Dragon, but there’s always been a plan of how we would get home.’
Williams and Willmore have been stuck on the ISS since Starliner brought them there on June 6.
While Starliner has returned back to Earth without a crew on September 7, the duo continue to wait for SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission that will pick them up at the ISS and bring them home no earlier than February 2025.
However, many studies have shown that extended stays in space can lead to dramatic weight lost.
During long-term ISS missions, crews can typically lose about five percent of their original body mass, due primarily to muscle and bone density loss that occurs naturally due to microgravity.
Wilmore, according to one NASA official who declined to be named, ‘had a lot more mass at the start,’ coming in at six feet tall and over 210 pounds.
‘So, it’s not as big of a deal,’ this employee told the New York Post.
Despite what seemed apparent to observers watching NASA’s video feeds, Williams came forward earlier this month to deny ‘rumors’ that she had lost weight while on her unexpectedly long stay in on the ISS.
Williams claimed that she has actually gained muscle on board the ISS, and pointed to ‘fluid shift’ to explain her appearance in the concerning photos.