A NASA astronaut made a heartbreaking statement from the International Space Station just moments before finally returning back down to Earth.

This comes as four astronauts made their return back to solid ground last week after spending five months in orbit.

The crew, made up of NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, and Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, had gone up to relieve the stranded test pilots of Boeing’s Starliner and stuck around to provide work above the atmosphere.

However, the crew splashed down just off the coast of southern California on Saturday (August 9) in their SpaceX capsule.

On the radio, SpaceX Mission Control could be heard welcoming the team home after the crew first left for space in March of this year.

However, just before leaving the ISS on Friday (August 8), McClain commented on ‘some tumultuous times on Earth’ with people struggling.

The crew splashed down just off the coast of southern California (Keegan Barber/NASA via Getty Images)

She said: “We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together.”

The astronaut went on to say that she was looking forward to ‘doing nothing for a couple of days’ after returning home and high on the team’s list of things to do included hot showers and juicy burgers.

How did astronauts end up stranded in space?

Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore were stuck in space from June 2024 after what was meant to be an eight day mission lasted months after.

This came after they ran into some serious issues with their spacecraft Boeing Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion system.

Five of the spacecraft’s maneuvering thrusters had reportedly stalled, with five helium leaks and a faulty propellant valve.

Boeing had insisted that the spacecraft was safe, allowing thruster tests that had taken place both in space and on the ground.

However, NASA deemed it too unsafe for the pair to return to Earth and instead, the spacecraft returned empty.

Four astronauts made their return back to solid ground last week after spending five months in orbit (Keegan Barber/NASA via Getty Images)

What are the physical effects of time in space?

One thing that can be impacted by spending time in space is your bones. When you’re not standing on your feet, carrying your body around, the bones in your feet stop producing healthy new tissue and start to weaken.

This has the potential to spark space-related osteoporosis.

Muscle mass is another body part that starts to break down in space, as well as effects on the cardiovascular system.

The heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood around the body in space, which ends up weakening the heart muscle.