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Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams with the crew after arriving at the space station on June 6.
Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams may take more time to return to Earth. NASA said on Tuesday that now astronauts will have to wait at least until the end of March 2025. This date may also extend till the beginning of April.
According to NASA officials, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has to make a new capsule for the flight, which will take time. According to NASA, a capsule is being made for the safe return of astronauts. This work can be completed by the end of March, only after which the astronauts stranded in space can be brought back.
Sunita Williams went to the International Space Station with Butch Wilmore on June 5. Her journey was only for 8 days but due to a malfunction in the spacecraft, she could not return to Earth. It has been more than six months since both the astronauts were stuck in space.
Earlier, NASA had informed that Sunita and Butch Wilmore would be brought back in February 2025 by the Dragon spacecraft of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.
Sunita Williams and Bush Wilmore at the International Space Station. The photo was taken on 9 July 2024.
Earlier on December 17, NASA had shared the picture of Sunita and Don Petit through a social media post. In the picture, both the astronauts looked excited about Christmas and were wearing Santa caps. NASA shared this post with the caption “Another day, another sled.”
Why were Sunita and Wilmore sent to the space station?
Sunita and Bush Wilmore went on the joint ‘Crew Flight Test Mission’ of Boeing and NASA. In this, Sunita was the pilot of the spacecraft. Bush Wilmore, who accompanied him, was the commander of this mission. Both of them were to return to Earth after an 8-day stay in the International Space Station (ISS).
At the time of the launch, Ted Colbert, President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, called it a great start to a new era of space research. The main objective of this mission was to prove the spacecraft’s ability to take astronauts to the space station and bring them back.
Astronauts also had to do research and many experiments at the space station in 8 days. Sunita and Wilmore are the first astronauts who were sent on space travel using the Atlas-V rocket. During this mission he also had to fly the spacecraft manually. Many types of objectives related to flight test also had to be completed.
How did Sunita and Wilmore get stuck in space for so long?
The Starliner spacecraft had many problems since its launch. Due to these, launches had failed many times even before June 5. Even after launch, there were reports of problems with the spacecraft.
NASA said that there is a small helium leak in the thruster of the spacecraft’s service module. A spacecraft has many thrusters. With their help the spacecraft changes its path and speed. Due to the presence of helium gas, pressure is created on the rocket. Its structure remains strong, which helps the rocket in its flight.
There were 5 helium leaks in the spacecraft’s capsule in the 25 days after launch. 5 thrusters had stopped working. Additionally, a propellant valve could not be closed completely. The crew present in space and the mission manager sitting in Houston, America together are not able to fix it.
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