2024-07-08 22:59:40
Washington: After a malfunction in the thruster of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, its mission to return to Earth has been put on hold. After this, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who went with the spacecraft, are stuck on the Space Station (ISS). Both astronauts left for space on June 5 last month. Their mission in space was only for a week, but more than a month has passed and there is no update about their return yet. NASA engineers are trying to fix the problem of Starliner, during this time both astronauts have to live with other passengers on the space station. In such a situation, the question arises that when will both the astronauts return to Earth and whether NASA needs to launch a rescue mission for this.
Sunita Williams is not stranded in space
These questions have been answered by Patrick Winning, an expert on space systems and missions. Patrick works as a Mission Area Executive for National Security Space at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. He said that it is unnecessary to talk about a rescue operation for the two astronauts. Explaining the reason for this, he says that first it must be understood that the astronauts who reached the ISS aboard the Starliner spacecraft are not stranded. Neither are the seven other astronauts already present on the ISS stranded.
Two more spacecraft also for return
Patrick said that Starliner is capable of returning to Earth with its passengers. Apart from this, two other spacecraft docked at the ISS are also capable of bringing astronauts back to Earth. These include a SpaceX Dragon Endeavor and Soyuz MS-25 crew ship. NASA’s team is collecting data of the spacecraft after reports of a malfunction in Starliner’s thruster and an unexpected helium leak, due to which the return of the spacecraft has been delayed.
Here we need to remember that going to space is difficult. Human space flight is even more difficult. Starliner has many backup systems in its design, which made its arrival at the ISS successful, but it is important to understand unforeseen situations even with backup systems. This is why NASA is collecting more data. He also said that rescue missions are usually carried out by the military, such as if a spacecraft falls into the sea during launch. But here the case is different, the US military does not have the capability to carry out missions in space. At present, there is no need for rescue in this case.
Need to change protocol?
Asked if future emergency protocols would be changed after the Starliner problem, Patrick said he did not think so. “I think NASA and Boeing will take a close look at ground testing procedures and approaches. All spacecraft developers make a great effort to conduct ‘in-flight testing’ to detect abnormal conditions on space systems before launch. It is clear that Boeing’s test program was inadequate to capture current conditions. That is why more on-orbit test data must be collected,” he said.