• By Kamal Kumar
  • Sat, 31 Aug 2024 10:52 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND

Sunita Williams News:  As Sunita Williams, the Indian-origin American astronaut, waits to return to earth from the International Space Station (ISS), the tragic end of another Indian-descent astronaut Kalpana Chawla and her six other colleagues during their return to earth aboard the Columbia space shuttle weighs down heavily on NASA officials, who have now decided to keep Suni is the space for another eight months.

While Boeing Starliner will return to earth without crew members in September, Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore will be brought back aboard a SpaceX flight in February next year.

Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated and burnt as it re-entered the earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, on its 28th mission in 22 years of its operation, killing all the astronauts aboard, including Kalpana Chawla.

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Before it, another US shuttle 'Challenger' exploded in a similar way killing all the crew members on January 28, 1986. Both space accidents caused a total of 14 loss of lives.

These incidents have "very much affected the decision" of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to bring back both Starliner crew aboard the Boeing shuttle, NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who himself was a former astronaut, said.

"We have had mistakes done in the past. We lost two space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward...," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on August 24.

What Happened To Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla, a Haryana girl who went on to fulfil her dream of becoming an astronaut, died when Space Shuttle Columbia blew mid-air over the southern US, while it was attempting a re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

Kalpana, who was born and brought up in Haryana's Karnal, studied in the Tagore School in the city till 1976, She completed her BSc in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982 and went to America to study further. In 1994, Chawla joined NASA as an astronaut.

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What NASA Chief Nelson Said On Two Tragic Space Accidents

Nelson said that the culture in NASA at that time was such that despite some junior engineers warning of risks, no one paid heed to them. "Today, folks are encouraged to speak their minds," he added.

"Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and bring Boeing's Starliner home without crewed is the result of our commitment to safety - our core value and our North Star," said Nelson.