Why Will Sunita Williams Remain in Space Till 2025, How is NASA Planning to Bring Her Back?

Washington: NASA has announced that Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams and her counterparts will be able to return to the earth from the International Space Station (ISS), only in 2025.

Read to know why is Sunita Williams stranded in space till next year and how is the space organisation planning to bring her back to the earth.

Astronauts Stranded at ISS To Not Return in Boeing Capsule

NASA's announcement on Saturday that it won't use a troubled Boeing capsule to return two stranded astronauts to Earth is a yet another setback for the struggling company, although the financial damage is likely to be less than the reputational harm.

NASA has decided that it is safer to keep the astronauts in space until February rather than risk using the Boeing Starliner capsule that delivered them to the international space station. The capsule has been plagued by problems with its propulsion system.

How is NASA Planning to Bring Back Sunita Williams and Other Astronauts

Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will come back in a SpaceX spacecraft in February. Their empty Starliner capsule will undock in a week or two and attempt to return on autopilot.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon will be launched into space in September this year and is expected to return in February, 2025.

The stranded astronauts at ISS including Sunita Williams are expected to return to earth in the SpaceX aircraft which means that they have to spend six more months there.

Why Will Sunita Williams Remain Stranded in Space Till Next Year?

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said the decision to send the Boeing capsule back to Earth empty "is a result of a commitment to safety”. Boeing had insisted Starliner was safe based on recent tests of thrusters both in space and on the ground.

The space capsule program represents a tiny fraction of Boeing's revenue, but carrying astronauts is a high-profile job — like Boeing's work building Air Force One presidential jets.

“The whole thing is another black eye” for Boeing, aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia said. “It's going to sting a little longer, but nothing they haven't dealt with before.” Boeing has lost more than USD 25 billion since 2018 as its aircraft-manufacturing business cratered after those crashes. For a time, the defence and space side of the company provided a partial cushion, posting strong profits and steady revenue through 2021.

Once a symbol of American engineering and technological prowess, Boeing has seen its reputation battered since two 737 Max airliners crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The safety of its products came under renewed scrutiny after a panel blew out of a Max during a flight this January.

Boeing, with more than a century of building airplane and decades as a NASA contractor, was seen as the favourite. But Starliner suffered technical setbacks that caused it to cancel some test launches, fall behind schedule and go over budget. SpaceX won the race to ferry astronauts to the ISS, which it accomplished in 2020.

Boeing was finally ready to carry astronauts this year, and Butch Wilmore and 'Suni' Williams launched aboard Starliner in early June for what was intended to be an 8-day stay in space. But thruster failures and helium leaks led NASA to park the vehicle at the space station while engineers debated how to return them to Earth.

(Inputs from AP)