NASA astronaut’s family discloses her hidden mental struggles following challenging 9-month space mission

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams may have put a brave face while stuck in space, but her family have revealed how she was secretly hurting.

Before being sent on the mission intended to be 10 days long, Williams’ mother, Bonnie Pandya, shared that her daughter had been contemplating retirement.

Throughout the arduous nine months she was stuck on the International Space Station, Williams expressed her longing for her family and the comfort of their embrace.

In an interview with local news station WCNC, Williams’ sister Dina Annad shared the context of a private email between her and her sibling.

In it, Williams wrote: ‘You forget that in space you’re not holding hands you’re not hugging people.’

Bonnie Pandya also shared a heartwarming message upon her daughter’s return, saying her family and friends have been ‘waiting and waiting.’

‘We missed you a lot, but with you keeping in touch with everybody and all of us, the family, we didn’t miss that much but just enough,’ Pandya said.

Williams, alongside fellow crewmate Butch Wilmore, endured a grueling 286 days aboard the ISS. This duration comes in second only to Frank Rubio, who holds the record for spending 371 consecutive days on the ISS.

The pair finally returned to Earth Tuesday, splashing down off the coast of Florida at 5:57pm ET and reuniting with family hours after. 

Dina Annad, Sunita Williams’ sister, has shared the psychological trauma the astronaut endured while being stuck in space for 286 days.

Sunita Williams returned to Earth Tuesday , splashing down off the coast of Florida at 5:57pm ET and reuniting with family hours after

Throughout William’s stay, the public and medical experts raised concerns about her health as she appeared gaunt in photos taken of her on the ISS.

Dr Gupta told DailyMail.com: ‘What you’re seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.

‘Her cheeks appear a bit sunken – and usually it happens when you’ve had sort of total body weight loss,’ Dr Gupta added.

But through it all, Williams kept a stony face and even laughed about her extended stay during press conferences.  

During a press conference on March 4, Williams actually said she would miss being in space.

But behind the scenes, a different story was happening. 

Annad told WCNC that Williams’ was missing her friends and family just as much, so much they sent funny stories and jokes to the ISS.

Williams’ cousin, Falguni Pandya, was also ‘constantly in touch’ with her.

Annad (left) shared an untold admission from the astronaut, revealing a person who was missing her family and the warmth of their touch.Williams’ mother (right) also said she has been waiting for her daughter’s return

‘We are constantly meeting on Microsoft software, celebrating holidays together and we sent her gifts, cards and photographs. We are constantly in touch,’ Falguni said two days before the return mission. ‘She talks to her mother about every day.’

The cousin painted Williams as a ‘very joyful person’ and gushed over how close she is with all the children in the family, suggesting the astronaut was surely missing them while in space.

‘People have seen her giving speeches people have seen her talk about intense topics and Science and all that, but she really likes to laugh she finds joy in the smallest of things to the point where you know it’s very infectious,’ Falguni added.

Falguni told Republic World, an Indian news station, she was looking forward to seeing her two pet dogs again. 

Williams and Wilmore blasted off on June 5 and docked on the ISS one day later.

While they were set to return home on June 13, a scourge of technical issues with their spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner.

The problems ultimately drove NASA to delay their return until they could hitch a ride home on a safer ship.

Williams emerged from the SpaceX capsule on Tuesday smiling and waving as she was lifted onto a stretcher and taken for medical evaluations.

Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore (right) spent a total of 286 days on the International Space Station (ISS) when their mission was set for only eight days

Steve Stich, manager at NASA’s Commercial Crew Program said at a news conference that night that Williams and Wilmore were doing ‘great’. 

While experts believed Williams would not walk on her own for at least a few days, she was seen standing on two feet in pictures released by NASA around 2am ET Wednesday.

She looked noticeably frail with ‘visibly thin’ wrists, which doctors told DailyMail.com could be a sign of rapid weight loss, muscular wasting in her arms, and bone density loss.

The experts also noted the IV sticking out of Williams’ wrist is ‘most likely’ to help restore hydration and electrolytes, as microgravity tricks the body into eliminating necessary fluids, causing dehydration. 

Striking before and after pictures of Williams showed her with noticeably grayer hair, deeper wrinkles, and a more gaunt face.

Dr John Jaquish, a biomedical engineer in at Jaquish Biomedical, told DailyMail.com: ‘That amount of time in space is crushing.’ 

Former astronauts have found that it can take up to 1.5 times the length of the mission to recover. 

That means Williams and Wilmore may need more than a year before they feel entirely themselves again.