Desk. Boeing’s ‘Starliner’ spacecraft returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday without astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. Due to a problem in the spacecraft, it had to return to Earth without astronauts. Two pilots of the US space agency NASA will now remain on the space station till next year.
After a six-hour journey, the spacecraft landed in the desert of New Mexico. After the ‘Starliner’ left the space station, Sunita Williams said in a radio message, “He is going home.” Williams and Wilmore were supposed to return to Earth in June, a week after the ‘Starliner’ took off into space, but due to a problem in the spacecraft’s ‘thruster’ and helium leak, both of them are stuck in space.
NASA had said that bringing both the astronauts back by ‘Starliner’ is very risky. Therefore, this fully automated vehicle is returning to Earth with empty seats, some old equipment present on the station and the blue space suit worn in space. Now ‘SpaceX’ vehicle will bring both the astronauts back in February next year, which will make their eight-day mission more than eight months long.
Veteran astronauts and retired Navy Captains Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are keeping themselves busy in space and helping with repair and maintenance work and experiments. They are now working with seven other astronauts on the space station. Let us tell you that NASA has decided to return both the astronauts with the SpaceX Crew 9 spacecraft, which will bring both the stranded astronauts back to Earth in February 2025.
