नासा बोला- कल्पना चावला की मौत से सबक लिया: कहा- अब सुनीता विलियम्स की वापसी में जल्दबाजी नहीं करेंगे; फरवरी 2025 में लौटेंगी ऐस्ट्रोनॉट

Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams with the crew after arriving at the space station on June 6.

NASA has decided to bring Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams back to Earth in February next year in view of the technical fault in Boeing’s spacecraft. A major reason behind this decision is astronaut Kalpana Chawla.

In fact, on 1 February 2003, the Columbia space shuttle of Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman astronaut, broke down and burned as soon as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. 7 people, including Kalpana, died in this accident. After this accident, NASA has become more careful about its astronauts.

NASA chief Bill Nelson said, “That accident has had a deep impact on our decision. Mistakes were made by NASA at that time. The atmosphere here was very different then. The suggestions and warnings of junior flight engineers were often ignored. But now it is not so. We give every person in NASA an opportunity to express their views.”

Kalpana Chawla died on 1 February 2003 while returning from Columbia Space Shuttle.

Safety of astronauts is most important, space flight is always dangerous
NASA officials said that in the case of Sunita Williams, the decision to not bring her on the Boeing spacecraft was taken unanimously. Bill Nelson said that space flight can be extremely dangerous even during the safest journey. The safety of astronauts is a priority for us, keeping this decision in mind.

Kalpana Chawla, born in Karnal, Haryana, flew to space on 16 January 2003 in NASA’s space shuttle Columbia. After completing a 15-day journey, when she was returning to Earth on 1 February, her aircraft crashed 16 minutes before landing. All 7 astronauts died in this.

Apart from this, on 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger also exploded while returning to Earth. 14 astronauts died in this accident.

Sunita stuck in space for 85 days, will return next year
NASA said on February 24 that Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore would return to Earth by February 2025. NASA had finally admitted that it could be dangerous to bring the two astronauts stranded on the ISS in Boeing’s new Starliner capsule.

Both astronauts were sent to the ISS on June 5 in this spacecraft. NASA had said that Sunita and Butch Wilmore will return in February in the Dragon spacecraft of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. At the same time, the Starliner capsule will try to separate from the ISS in a week or two and return to auto pilot mode.

NASA official Bill Nelson had said, ‘Boeing’s Starliner will return to Earth without a crew.’ Sunita and Wilmore were to return on June 13, but their return was postponed due to a technical fault in the spacecraft.

How did Sunita and Willmore get stuck in space for so long?
There were many problems with the Starliner spacecraft since its launch. Due to these, the launch had failed several times even before June 5. There were reports of problems in the spacecraft even after the launch.

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. At the same time, due to the presence of helium gas, pressure is created on the rocket. Its structure remains strong, which helps the rocket in its flight.

Within 25 days after launch, there were 5 helium leaks in the spacecraft capsule. 5 thrusters had stopped working. Apart from this, 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.