Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and her NASA colleague Butch Wilmore will return to their homeland next year with billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
With the help of entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and her NASA coworker Butch Wilmore will visit their own country in 2019.Astronaut Sunita Williams, who is Indian-American, and her NASA coworker Butch Wilmore will come home with entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX in 2019 after visiting the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing’s problematic Starliner in June. The two experienced astronauts were sent to the ISS on June 5 for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission. However, due to a malfunction in Boeing’s spacecraft thruster, their return was delayed by several weeks, and NASA announced on Saturday that they would return to Earth in February next year. The Starliner will return to Earth without a crew.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated that our dedication to safety was the reason behind the decision to keep both astronauts on the space station and return the Starliner unmanned.”Safety is our core value,” he said again.
They told reporters, ‘Space flights, even in their safest and most routine phases, are inherently risky.’ ‘A test flight, by its very nature, is neither safe nor routine.’
The Starliner’s Mistakes at Boeing.
After several years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner finally took flight on June 5, carrying Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, both former military test pilots, to the space station. However, just a day later, when Starliner approached the ISS, NASA and Boeing identified a helium leak and encountered issues with the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters.
Five out of Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed during the flight, and there were several helium leaks, which are used to pressurize the thrusters. It managed to dock with the space station in spite of this, as astronauts had been living there in rotation for more than 20 years.
“However, NASA was concerned that the capsule might not gain the necessary force to return to Earth. Therefore, they decided to transfer both astronauts to the SpaceX mission and bring the Starliner back empty.
The space agency of the United States said, “The uncrewed return will help NASA and Boeing gather test data during the upcoming flight of the Starliner, while also ensuring that there is no unnecessary risk taken for the crew.”
Now, in early September, Starliner will undock from the ISS without a crew.
How will Elon Musk’s SpaceX help Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore?
Under a move considered a rare reshuffle in astronaut operations at NASA, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will now return to Earth aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Under the new plan, the SpaceX Crew-9 mission will launch at the end of September, when the Starliner heads back to Earth, freeing up a docking port at the ISS.
However, to accommodate Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore, only two passengers will be seated instead of the originally planned four.
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