'I weigh the same': NASA astronaut Suni Williams refutes tabloid health claims (video)

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"I think my body has changed a little bit, but I weigh the same."

Don't believe the tabloids: NASA astronaut Suni Williams says she's doing just fine aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Last week, media outlets such as The Daily Mail and The New York Post published stories speculating that Williams' health may be deteriorating in Earth orbit, citing an outside doctor's opinion that she looks "gaunt" in some recent photos.

NASA officials quickly refuted those claims, saying Williams and the other three agency astronauts currently living on the ISS are in good health. And now, Williams herself has delivered the same message.

NASA astronaut Suni Williams gives a video interview from the International Space Station on Nov. 12, 2024. (Image credit: NASA)

"I'm the same weight that I was when I got up here," Williams said today (Nov. 12) in a video interview from the ISS, in response to a question from the New England Sports Network.

Related: Astronaut Suni Williams 'in good health' on the ISS, NASA says, refuting tabloid claims

Williams said she's been working out assiduously on the orbiting lab, as all astronauts do to stave off the muscle wasting and loss in bone density that can come with long-duration exposure to microgravity. 

She's been riding an exercise bike, running on a treadmill and lifting weights on the ISS, and her body has changed as a result.

"I could definitely tell that weightlifting, which is not something that I do all the time, has definitely changed me. My thighs are a little bit bigger, my butt is a little bit bigger," Williams said. 

But, she stressed, "I weigh the same."

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Williams arrived at the ISS on June 6 with fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, on the first-ever crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner capsule. 

That mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), was supposed to last just 10 days or so. However, Starliner experienced thruster issues on its way to the orbiting lab. NASA extended CFT to study the problem in detail and ultimately decided to bring Starliner home without anyone on board, which happened on Sept. 6. 

Williams and Wilmore will come back to Earth in February 2025 with the two astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission, who arrived in late September.

Williams commands the orbiting lab's Expedition 72. The other members of the mission currently living on the ISS are Wilmore, fellow NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Unclear Engineer
    Glad to hear that she is doing well.

    But, I had to chuckle when she said she "weighs the same as when she got to the ISS", because, in zero gravity, everything weighs nothing. So, her "weight" is and always was zero up there.

    So, logical question: How does NASA assess astronaut body mass during missions? I guess you could apply a know force, such as a spring compressed by a certain amount, and measure how fast that ended up pushing somebody with some sort of speed measuring device as the astronaut floated down the ISS tube.

    Does anybody here know how they actually do it?
    Reply
  • Classical Motion
    Attach WiFi accelerometers tabs at various points on body. A dozen or so. One month before launch. And record continuously till one month after touchdown.

    What better record could one have? One could probably detect moods with it. Might detect drinking, eating, urination and defecation too. These traces might show mental states.

    And of course an acceleration “mission hologram”. For every astronaut.

    A very rich and virgin data field.

    This might be a great diagnostic tool here too. No need to ask what you doing or have you been active.

    Kinda 1984 isn’t it. I wonder if a large catalog could spot instability.

    Imagine if marketers could get this info. There would be no doubt what people do and what people want.

    But only for network and service provider diagnostics.
    Reply
  • Unclear Engineer
    An accelerometer could measure body mass, if you know what force is being applied to the body. But, you still need a calibrated force to replace gravity in order to get a measurement that can be equated to weight when on Earth.
    Reply
  • billslugg
    I would make a sack they could sit inside, hook it by a long cable to a pulley mounted to a scale. Have a motor turn the pulley at 9.8 m/s^2 and read the scale.
    Reply
  • Unclear Engineer
    billslugg said:
    I would make a sack they could sit inside, hook it by a long cable to a pulley mounted to a scale. Have a motor turn the pulley at 9.8 m/s^2 and read the scale.
    That sounds somewhat dangerous!!! I would not want to be the astronaut flying through the space station in a sack at even 9.8 m/s, from 1 second of that, much less any faster.

    And, turning a motor at an accelerating rate is harder to calibrate than the compressed spring concept I initially posted.

    I am thinking an accelerometer on the astronaut, who tries to imitate a ball, getting pushed by a calibrated spring would be easily feasible.

    But, it would be nice to know what NASA really does. Assuming it does something. Otherwise, the astronauts really would not know how much the weigh until they are back on Earth's surface.
    Reply