Tuesday , October 8 2024

The world’s first press conference was held in space 420 km away from Earth, Sunita Williams explained why she could not come back

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Washington: America’s Boeing Starliner capsule, which was stuck in space for several months due to technical fault, may have returned to Earth a few days ago, but Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who went with it, have not been able to return to Earth yet. On Friday, they held the world’s first press conference in space 420 kilometers away from the Earth. During this, Sunita Williams explained why she could not return to Earth yet. Sunita said that it has been very difficult for the Boeing aircraft to go to Earth without her and then for her to spend so many months in space. 

However, Sunita Williams also said that she is enjoying being in space. NASA’s Boeing plane returned safely to Earth a few days ago. But Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were not in it. According to NASA, bringing them back to Earth by this plane could have proved dangerous. Therefore, Sunita and Wilmore have been left in space. Both the astronauts went on an 8-day space mission in June. But now they will remain in space for about 8 months. 

Why didn’t you come back?

Sunita Williams said that she could not return due to technical flaws in the plane. But she will return soon. Currently, she is enjoying being in space. She still has a lot of work to do here. Sunita said that she had already been in space twice. Therefore, she did not face much difficulty here. However, she also said that spending time in orbit was very difficult for us and we did not like Boeing returning without us. But she is excited. Because space is her favorite place. She said that she is happy about 2 different space flights on the same mission. She is a tester and this is her job. 

There was a technical problem with the vehicle.

Due to problems in the thruster of the spacecraft and the leaking of helium, it failed to bring the astronauts back to Earth. Two pilots of the US space agency NASA will now remain on the ISS till next year. For months, questions were raised about the return of Wilmore and Williams, as engineers struggled to understand the problems in the spacecraft. After extensive testing, Boeing had said that the Starliner was safe for the return journey to Earth, but NASA disagreed with this and instead decided to bring the astronauts back from SpaceX. The SpaceX spacecraft will not be launched until later this month, which means that Wilmore and Williams will remain in space till February.

When will Sunita Williams return?

Now the SpaceX spacecraft will bring both astronauts back in February next year, which will make their eight-day mission more than eight months long. Veteran astronauts and retired Navy captains Wilmore and Williams are keeping themselves busy in space and helping with repair and maintenance work and experiments. They are now working with seven other passengers on the space station. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said earlier this week that the space team has been so focused on the return of the Starliner that they have not had time to think about Boeing’s next project.