CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — NASA’s medical chief put internet rumors to rest Thursday morning about Starliner mission astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams’ health.

Dr. James Polk said Williams and the rest of the International Space Station crew are “in good health.”

Ever since the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail interviewed Dr. Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist in Seattle, his comments about Williams’ health — such as her weight loss — caught fire on social media, with many talking about her assumed deteriorating health.

Williams and her fellow NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore are members of the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. In June, they left on Boeing’s Starliner capsule on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission to the International Space Station.

A series of issues from leaking hydrogen and thrusters not working resulted in the pair staying on the space station for months longer, with a targeted return date of February 2025 as they hitch a ride home with NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-9 members.

With unconfirmed social media rumors swirling around, Polk said on Thursday morning that Williams and the rest of the space station crew are in good health.

“All NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station, including Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, are in good health,” he told members of the media. “It’s unfortunate that rumors persist otherwise. NASA and our partners have safely conducted long duration missions aboard the orbital laboratory for decades, studying the effects of space on the human body as we prepare for exploration farther into the solar system. Crew health is regularly monitored by dedicated flight surgeons on Earth, and they have an individual diet and fitness regime to ensure they remain healthy throughout their expeditions.”

While floating in the International Space Station, Williams herself said she is just fine.

“Oh, it’s funny. I think there’s some rumors around outside there that I was losing weight and stuff. No, I’m actually right at the same amount. Things shift around quite a bit, you know? … You probably heard of a fluid shift where folks in space, you know, their heads look a little bit bigger because the fluid evens out along the body,” she said in an interview.  

It is true that being in microgravity and staying in space for a certain amount of time does impact the human body, such as muscle loss, but astronauts are required to eat a certain amount of food and exercise to maintain their health.

Not only is she healthy, according to her and NASA, but they made Williams commander of Expedition 72. An expedition means the current crew in the International Space Station.

This does come at a time where one of the four Crew-8 members was taken to a hospital after an October splashdown for a “medical issue,” according to NASA, but the U.S. space agency has not mentioned what the issue was or who the astronaut was, which the person was given a clean bill of health.

In an executive interview with Spectrum News, Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Anna Menon of the civilian Polaris Dawn mission explained why there is constant health research on people who go into space and the benefits of the data being collected.