Due to the low gravity of the Earth's atmosphere compared to life in outer space, the duo could be transferred onto stretchers and rushed off to medical evaluations when their spacecraft lands, the doctors told the Mail.

A doctor has detailed what the NASA astronauts stranded in space will face once they have finally returned to Earth. Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore were initially launched into space from Cape Canaveral Space Force on June 5 last year for what was meant to be an eight-day mission - but it has been anything but.

In a news briefing following the landing, Nasa spokesperson Steve Stich said: "From a human perspective, all of us feel happy about the successful landing, but then there's a piece of us - all of us - that wish it would have been the way we had planned it.