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It is now confirmed by NASA that Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will continue to stay at the International Space Station (ISS) at least until early 2025 and will be making their way back to Earth using SpaceX Dragon instead of Boeing’s Starliner. Both astronauts went to the ISS as part of Starliner’s Crew Flight Test and will soon become full-time crew members of the space station. Although both astronauts are trained to be full-time crew members, the extended stay at the space station could lead to some health complications, primarily due to microgravity. One such problem is space anemia, in which the human body tends to destroy red blood cells faster than on Earth, increasing from two million per second to three million per second. According to a research paper titled Hemolysis Contributes to Anemia During Long-Duration Space Flight, published in the Nature Medicine journal in 2022, space anemia in astronauts can lead to “increased levels of products of hemoglobin degradation, carbon monoxide in alveolar air and iron in serum”. This study was conducted on 14 astronauts throughout their six-month missions onboard the International Space Station, indicating that extended exposure to microgravity in space leads to “increased levels of hemolysis, reticulocytosis, and hemoglobin”. The study further highlights that within the first 10 days in space, there will be a “10–12% decrease in the red blood cell (RBC)” count and that the count will return to near-Earthly values after 10 days. Space anemia can affect functions like “astronaut orthostatism, exercise tolerance, and fatigue”. Once they come back to Earth, space anemia will have a different effect on these astronauts, which includes a further increase in the destruction of red blood cells. Other effects of long-term exposure to microgravity include the loss of bone density and the development of vision-related issues. Depending on the physical condition of the body, it could take months for astronauts to recover from these complications. None
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