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Needham native on International Space Station says she’s healthy after media report that she’s dropped weight

“My body has changed a little bit, but I weigh the same.”

Suni Williams in June. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images

November 12, 2024

2 minutes to read

Astronaut and Needham native Suni Williams on Tuesday addressed recent “rumors” that she’s lost weight as her stay at the International Space Station continues.

Speaking with the New England Sports Network for the network’s Clubhouse Kids show, Williams said she weighs the same as she did when she arrived at the station in June.

“There are some rumors around, outside there, that I’m losing weight and stuff — no, I’m actually right at the same amount,” Williams said Tuesday.

When Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore arrived at the space station in June, they were expected to stay a week after traveling into space as the first pilots aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. But troubles with the capsule’s thruster left its ability to safely return Williams and Wilmore to Earth in doubt, and in August, NASA ruled out bringing the pair back aboard the Starliner. Instead, Williams and Wilmore will return in February on a different craft.

The New York Post reported last week that the Massachusetts native has seen “significant” weight loss since arriving at the space station, citing an unnamed source at NASA.

In a statement to the publication, NASA said all its astronauts on the space station under go “routine medical evaluations.”

“They have dedicated flight surgeons monitoring them, and are in good health,” the statement read.

On Tuesday, Williams brought up the “rumors” after speaking about how important she thinks it is to model to kids the benefits of staying active through athletics as part of a healthy lifestyle.

“I’m the same weight that I was when I got up here,” she said. “I think, things shift around quite a bit. You’ve probably heard of a fluid shift where folks in space, their heads look a little bit bigger because fluid evens out along the body.”

Williams said the space station has a treadmill, a bike, and weightlifting equipment, which she said she’s been using in addition to doing “a lot” of squats.

“I think my body has changed a little bit, but I weigh the same,” she said.

Earlier this fall, Williams ran the Falmouth Road Race from space. A Needham High School graduate, Williams has been on two other space missions since becoming a NASA astronaut in 1998 and until 2017 was the record holder for cumulative spacewalking time by a woman astronaut.