By CHRIS MELORE, ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Published: 17:19 EDT, 31 March 2025 | Updated: 17:20 EDT, 31 March 2025
A doctor has made a shocking admission about NASA astronaut Sunita Williams' appearance following her return from space two weeks ago.
Williams appeared frail and gaunt after she and her crewmate, Butch Williams, splashdown off the coast of Florida on March 18 after being in space for 288 days.
The pair gave their first interview today on Fox News, in which Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and Air Force veteran, told DailyMail.com that he was not surprised to see that her face looks fuller, less sunken.
'It looks like she just has gotten better sleep,' he added. 'She's back on level ground. Her metabolism is normalizing to sort of normal gravity.'
'She's not undergoing the stress that her body was undergoing at 60,000 mph at altitudes,' Gupta noted.
'She's probably just eating healthier and is able to sort of modulate and gain back some weight,' the doctor continued. 'I think two weeks has probably been sufficient to look just healthier.'
Williams and Wilmore spoke again on Monday during a NASA press conference where she even said her recovery has been 'miraculous.'
Former astronauts have found that it can take up to 1.5 times the length of the mission to recover, but the pair appeared to bounce back in matter of days.
Despite that long timetable, Dr Gupta said the more significant impacts on their health are well past them now - adding that there will be very little for the veteran astronauts to worry about moving forward health-wise.
Stranded NASA astronaut Sunita 'Suni' Williams appeared in a televised interview (pictured) less than two weeks after returning to Earth
AFTER: After her extended stay in space, health experts warn that Suni Williams may have serious health complications
Striking images taken right after Williams left the SpaceX Dragon capsule that rescued her after nine months showed her with noticeably grayer hair, deeper wrinkles, and a more gaunt face.
Hours later, the astronaut's condition raised even more concern after medical experts spotted Williams' 'visibly thin' wrists, which they told DailyMail.com could be a sign of rapid weight loss, muscular wasting in her arms, and bone density loss.
Now that Williams and Wilmore are being properly fed, are back at ground level, and are no longer experiencing the stresses of space flight, Dr Gupta was confident that the astronauts are basically past the recovery phase already.
Gupta added that altitude sickness can become a chronic problem and lead to more issues such as weight loss, which is what Williams suffered through.
'The second you're back on level ground. That's when your body starts to heal and sort of re-equilibrate,' the Air Force veteran said.
Williams returned with a full head of gray hair, but during the Monday interview she debuted a fresh look of dyed black hair. Some speculated that the move may have covered any signs of health impacts from being in space.
Williams and Wilmore were initially scheduled to spend eight days on the ISS when they launched aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for the capsule's first crewed test flight on June 5, 2024.
While the two astronauts safely reached the space station, the problem-plagued Starliner immediately began to experience serious technical issues.
BEFORE: Suni Williams left Earth nine months ago on a trip that was supposed to last eight days
Williams was seen walking under her own power as she met NASA officials at the Johnson Space Center in Houston hours after the SpaceX Dragon capsule splashdown on March 18
By the time they had reached the station, five of Starliner's 28 thrusters failed and the craft had begun to leak helium - the same problems that had been delaying the Boeing project for years.
When it became clear that Starliner could not bring the astronauts home safely, the capsule was sent back to Earth uncrewed and without a clear plan in place to bring the stranded astronauts home.
The duo would end up spending over nine months (286 days) on the station in Earth orbit.
However, both Williams and Wilmore began showing the physical toll of being marooned on the ISS longer before returning to Earth in March.
Sunita Williams sparked health concerns over her 'visibly thin' appearance as she and Butch Wilmore finally returned to Earth after nine months in space
In November, an unnamed NASA source told theNew York Postthat the agency was scrambling to 'stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it.'
The unnamed employee who is 'directly involved with the mission' said that Williams has been 'unable to keep up with the high-caloric diets that astronauts must consume' while on the ISS.
'The pounds have melted off her and she's now skin and bones. So it's a priority to help her stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it,' the NASA source said.
To that point, Dr Gupta said the diets of these astronauts when they were back on Earth may have had a lot to do with their stamina in space.
On Monday, Williams noted in a NASA press conference that her father was a vegetarian and that her first meal after returning from ISS was a grilled cheese sandwich.
Dr Gupta explained that if Williams was shying away from meat-based proteins, this could have been a cause of her health issues over the nine months in space.
'Meaty sources of fat or protein tend to be fattier, take longer to digest, tend to power up your metabolism for more rigorous activity,' Gupta noted.
Wilmore, who took part in the same interview with Williams, appeared to maintain his weight and complexion throughout their long stay in space.
NASA and the astronauts have not publicly revealed if they have vastly different diets, so it's unknown if their meal choices played a role or not.
'If there was such a difference between what they were intaking. It does not surprise me at all that Sunita looks looked visibly thinner than her counterpart,' Dr Gupta added.