2024-10-02 22:38:25
Washington: NASA has launched a mission to bring back astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stuck in space for the last 3 months. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft has been launched with two astronauts. There are also two empty seats in the spacecraft, through which Sunita Williams and Wilmore will be brought back from space. The spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday. Both astronauts went to space via the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Now they may return in February. This was a test flight of Boeing Starliner. Both the astronauts were to stay in space for 8 days. But due to a malfunction in the Boeing Starliner, he has not been able to return to Earth. Boeing Starliner returned empty to Earth after being in space for more than two months. His landing was safe. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov flew to space via SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
Launch did not happen due to storm
Crew Dragon was to be launched on Thursday. But it was delayed due to Hurricane Helen. It has caused devastation in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee and the Carolinas. Billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has created Crew Dragon. It transports astronauts to and from the ISS every six months. According to Indian time, it will connect with the space station at 3 am on Monday.
There was a fault in the Starliner.
There is a contract between NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Under this, the three-seat Russian Soyuz spacecraft carries a NASA astronaut during every flight to the ISS. The four-seater Crew Dragon carries a Russian astronaut. Helium leaks and thruster malfunctions were observed in Boeing Starlight after its launch in June. Keeping in mind the safety of the astronauts, it was decided to bring it empty to Earth.