Starliner capsule returning empty seat from space, where will Sunita Williams stay and what will she do
The Starliner aircraft on which astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore went to the International Space Station is now ready to return without a crew. NASA has said that preparations to undock the Starliner from the ISS on Friday evening are almost complete.
Actually, due to a technical fault in the Starliner, both the astronauts have been in space for about 3 months, they were supposed to return to Earth on June 13 but this could not happen due to a fault in the thruster and helium leakage. Due to safety, NASA has decided to return the Starliner empty.
This automated capsule of Boeing will try to land in the White Sand Missile Range of New Mexico. Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will stay in the orbiting lab of ISS and will return in February next year via SpaceX's Dragon capsule.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will now be considered full-time station crew members like the 7 astronauts already on the ISS. They will conduct experiments and maintenance on the ISS, as well as exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong.
A one-week mission turned into 8 months
Williams and Wilmore went to the space station via Starliner on a week-long test flight, but due to a technical fault in the spacecraft, both of them will now return after spending 8 months. NASA worked with Boeing for a long time to fix the technical fault in Starliner and bring back the two astronauts, but the return mission had to be postponed repeatedly due to a fault in the thruster and helium leakage. Eventually, NASA admitted that bringing Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back via Starliner could be very risky, so the US space agency decided to return it empty.
NASA excited about Starliner's return
NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said, 'It has been a long journey to get here and we are very excited about the return of Starliner.' On Thursday, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will close the door between the Starliner and the space station and tomorrow i.e. on Friday, it will try to return to Earth.
NASA has included both astronauts in its Crew 9 mission, for SpaceX's next taxi flight Dragon capsule will be launched with only 2 astronauts. Earlier, 4 astronauts were to be launched through this mission but last week NASA removed 2 astronauts for this 6-month mission and Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore present on the space station will be a part of it. SpaceX's Dragon capsule is to be launched this month, so Boeing will have to vacate the parking space from the space station before SpaceX arrives.
Starliner failed in its very first mission
Starliner is a spacecraft built by Boeing, which has been facing many technical flaws since the beginning of the mission. Earlier in the year 2019, the first test flight of Starliner was a complete failure, this capsule of Boeing could not reach the space station due to software error. This mission was repeated after 3 years in which many more problems were faced, due to which Boeing suffered a loss of about 1 billion dollars.
NASA does not trust Starliner!
Although Boeing conducted continuous thruster tests and analyzed its data and expressed confidence that the Starliner spacecraft was capable of bringing both astronauts back safely to Earth, NASA denied it. NASA considered it unsafe and decided not to bring Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back from Starliner.
Informing about its decision, NASA said that both the astronauts will be brought back in February 2025 through SpaceX, and the Starliner, which is capable of returning without a crew, will have to return empty. However, the blue Boeing spacesuits of both the astronauts and some old equipment will also be brought back through Starliner.
NASA gave contracts to Boeing and SpaceX for commercial crew flights about a decade ago. SpaceX started this in the year 2020 itself and till now it has sent 9 crew flights for NASA and 4 for private customers into space.