Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams has been stuck in space for about 85 days. Meanwhile, her mother Bonnie Pandya said that she is not worried about the delay in her daughter’s return to Earth. In an interview to American TV network News Nation host Andrew Cuomo, Bonnie said, “Sunita is an experienced astronaut. I do not give her any advice. She knows what to do. She has been in space for 400 days. Sunita and Butch Wilmore are in the International Space Station (ISS) and they have a lot of work there.” Bonnie said, “The NASA team wants to ensure that Sunita’s return is completely safe. That is why it is taking time. I spoke to her just 2 days ago. She said that there is nothing to worry about. Everything is going well.” Mother Bonnie wrote a book during daughter’s space journey
Talking about her experience as a mother of an astronaut, Bonnie said, “I have been the mother of an astronaut for 20 years. This is Sunita’s third space journey.” During Sunita Williams’ space journey in 2022, Bonnie also wrote a book called Little Tale, Big Tales. On the other hand, NASA said that all the facilities are available for Sunita and Butch in the ISS. There is also adequate food and oxygen there. Recently, 3 tons of cargo has been sent to the ISS through 2 spacecraft, along with 8200 pounds of food, fuel and other essential items. Sunita trapped in space for 85 days, will return next year
NASA had said on February 24 that Sunita Williams and Butch 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 technical fault in the spacecraft. Why were Sunita and Wilmore sent to the space station? Sunita and Bush Wilmore went on Boeing and NASA’s joint ‘Crew Flight Test Mission’. In this, Sunita was the pilot of the spacecraft. Bush Wilmore, who accompanied her, was the commander of this mission. Both were to return to Earth after staying 8 days in the International Space Station (ISS). At the time of launch, Boeing Defense, Space and Security President and CEO Ted Colbert called it a great beginning of 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. The astronauts also had to do research and several experiments in 8 days at the space station. Sunita and Wilmore are the first astronauts who were sent on space travel through the Atlas-V rocket. During this mission, they also had to fly the spacecraft manually. Many objectives related to the flight test also had to be completed. How did Sunita and Wilmore get stuck in space for such a long time?
The Starliner spacecraft had many problems 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 the 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.
