‘He’s a trooper’: Astronaut Butch Wilmore’s daughter on his return to gravity

Nasa astronaut Butch Wilmore is helped out of a SpaceX capsule onboard the SpaceX restoration ship Megan after touchdown within the water off the coast of Tallahassee. (Pic credit score: AP)

Astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore is slowly reacclimating to life on Earth after spending an surprising 9 months in house, however the adjustment hasn’t been simple, in accordance to his daughter, Daryn Wilmore.
“He’s doing good,” Daryn shared on TikTok in response to a query about her father’s return to gravity. “It’s rough, but he’s a trooper.”
Wilmore, 62, together with fellow astronaut Sunita Williams, 59, landed off the coast of Florida earlier this week aboard a SpaceX capsule, concluding a extended mission that was initially meant to final simply 10 days.
The problem of readjusting to gravity
Returning from an prolonged keep in microgravity poses vital challenges for astronauts. The absence of Earth’s gravitational pull leads to muscle atrophy and bone density loss, requiring intensive rehabilitation upon return.
“Without Earth’s gravity affecting the human body, weight-bearing bones lose on average 1% to 1.5% of mineral density per month during spaceflight,” Nasa explains. “Astronauts also lose muscle mass in microgravity faster than they would on Earth.”
Following their splashdown, Wilmore and Williams had been transported to Houston, Texas, for medical evaluations and quarantine. Daryn confirmed that she noticed her father the identical day he landed.
A household’s lengthy watch for his return
Daryn, a 19-year-old school scholar, documented a lot of her father’s house ordeal on TikTok. In August, she posted a video explaining that his return had been delayed till “late February, early March” due to technical points with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, together with thruster malfunctions and helium leaks.
Despite the surprising extension of his mission, Daryn stated their household remained in “constant contact” with him all through. However, she additionally hinted at frustrations over the state of affairs, saying in a February video that “there’s been negligence” behind his extended keep in orbit.
“There’s a lot of politics, there’s a lot of things that I’m not at liberty to say, and that I don’t fully know about,” she stated.
On Wednesday, following Wilmore’s protected return, Daryn shared what she known as the “final installment” of her social media sequence, “My Dad is Stuck in Space.”
“I’m so happy. I’m so proud,” she stated, posting a video simply hours earlier than her father’s return to Earth.
A homecoming match for a house traveler
Excited to reunite together with her father, Daryn revealed she had plans to make his favorite dessert—pecan pie—and compiled a listing of actions to do collectively as he settled again into life on Earth.
“He’s going to spend the next few days going through tests, lots of medical stuff, because they’re still technically part of the experiment of human spaceflight, and just getting re-acclimated to gravity and routine back here on Earth,” she defined.
Grateful for the overwhelming help from her 36,000 TikTok followers, Daryn even pitched a Hollywood adaptation of her father’s journey.
“Hollywood, I think a movie should happen,” she joked. “If you want to call me, I have ideas. ‘Apollo 13’ is a great movie, but do you know what could be even better? This movie right here.”
Wilmore’s return marks the tip of a unprecedented chapter in spaceflight historical past—one which his daughter believes deserves a place on the large display.