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Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams has returned to Earth after 286 days. The spacecraft carrying Sunita, Barry Wilmore and two other astronauts landed on the seabed in Florida, USA at 3.27 am.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams have returned to Earth after nine months. Their SpaceX capsule landed safely in the Florida Gulf via parachute. Which is being seen as a major achievement. However, amidst these moments of success, there came a time when people were drowned in worry. This was the time when the mission controllers lost contact with the Crew Dragon capsule bringing back the astronauts. During this time, the people associated with the entire mission were holding their breath.
Video of Sunita Williams landing on Earth
First photo after arrival from space
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The SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Florida Panhandle. About an hour after splashdown, the astronauts emerged from their capsule, smiling and waving to the cameras. They were carried on stretchers for medical checkups, a common procedure after long-duration space missions.
NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test Mission was launched on 5 June 2024. Under this mission, NASA sent its two astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Butch Wilmore on an eight-day journey. Both were sent on the mission via the Starliner spacecraft. This was the first flight of the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) with astronauts.
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The mission on which Sunita and Barry are travelling is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. In fact, NASA's goal is to send safe, reliable and low-cost human missions from the US to the International Space Station in partnership with the US private industry. This test mission was launched for this purpose.
The goal of this mission was to show the Starliner's ability to carry out a six-month rotational mission to the space station. The crew flight test was designed to test the readiness and collect the necessary performance data before long-duration flights.
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Why did Sunita Williams get stuck in space?
During Starliner's flight to the space station, some of the spacecraft's thrusters did not perform as expected. 'Thrusters' are usually called low-force rocket motors. Apart from the weak performance of the thrusters, several leaks were also observed in Starliner's helium system.
After this, NASA and Boeing gathered information about the spacecraft through extensive data analysis. This investigation included organizations established after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident. This accident happened on February 1, 2003. This accident happened when the Columbia spacecraft was returning to Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts were killed in this accident, including Kalpana Chawla of Indian origin.
Most days spent in space at a time
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Sunita Williams made a record of staying on ISS for the longest time this time. By staying in space for 286 days at a time, Sunita has also registered her name in NASA's record book. If we talk about American astronauts, Frank Rubio holds the record of staying on ISS for the maximum number of days in one tour. Mark Vande Hei has spent 355 days on ISS so far. After this comes Scott Kelly, female astronaut Christina Kosh and Peggy Whitson.
Also Read: Is Sunita Williams Indian? Is She From Gujarat?
About the Author:
Kaif Ansari
