'They weren’t selected because they were physically fit...': Neil deGrasse Tyson on why Sunita Williams doesn’t need sympathy

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth on Tuesday after a nine-month stay at the space station. The extended time in zero gravity is said to have taken a toll on their health, and they are currently undergoing a 45-day rehabilitation program to readjust to Earth's gravity.

However, according to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astronauts should recover quickly. In an interview with NDTV, Tyson said that, unlike others, he was not worried about the duo despite their prolonged stay at the International Space Station (ISS).

He said, "They are professional astronauts... they are selected not just because they are physically fit but also because they are emotionally fit, okay? And when you are emotionally fit, things like, 'Okay, instead of eight days, it's nine months'... you don’t see them freaking out or reacting in a way that would jeopardize the safety of the crew. So that's why I was never worried... even if everybody else was. At no time did I have sympathy for them."


"I don’t think they needed sympathy, personally," he added.

On their recovery, Tyson stated that the astronauts should be back to normal within a week.

"When you spend this much time being weightless, your ability to orient yourself to what is 'up' and 'down' is compromised because you never had to use the inner ear’s tools to establish 'up' and 'down' in space. Now, I haven’t been in space... but I have spoken to astronauts, friends of mine, who have spent a lot of time there, and they say they typically recover within a week."

However, he advised that Williams and Wilmore should not be given glass cutlery just yet.

"...If you hand them a glass, they might just let go (because their muscles are weaker). So, make sure the first few beverages are in a plastic cup," Tyson was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams successfully splashed down in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule at 5:57 PM EDT on Tuesday.

Wilmore and Williams initially launched into space in June on a test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. However, NASA later deemed it too risky to bring them back on the same vehicle. Instead, they returned with SpaceX’s Crew-9, a routine ISS staff rotation mission, alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Crew-9 was able to depart this week after four Crew-10 astronauts arrived at the ISS on Sunday, taking over station duties.

Wilmore and Williams’ prolonged mission also became a political flashpoint. Former US President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made vague claims that the company could have returned the astronauts earlier but was allegedly blocked by the administration led by former US President Joe Biden, CNN reported earlier.