Boeing’s Starliner, carrying Indian-American astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore stuck on the space station, finally returned to Earth after three months. It landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 9.31 am on September 7.
Starliner completed its deorbit burn at around 8.58. After this burn, it took about 44 minutes to land on the ground. At the time of landing, its heat shield was active in the atmosphere. After this, the drogue parachute was deployed. That is, two small parachutes. After this, the main parachute was deployed out of three.
After this, the rotation handle is released again so that the spacecraft stops rotating in a circular motion and lands straight in the same position. The heat shield at the bottom is removed. After this, the airbags inflate. Then an airbag cushioned landing takes place. Then the recovery team comes and recovers the spacecraft.
Also read: NASA-SpaceX’s special plan… Two astronauts removed from Crew-9 mission for Sunita and Buch
After landing, there will be recovery and subsequent investigation
After the Starliner lands, the NASA and Boeing team will take it back to the assembly unit. It will be examined there. It will be found out why the helium leaked. Why did the propulsion system have problems. Why did this spacecraft cause problems to Sunita and Butch in docking.
In October 2011, NASA gave Boeing the green signal to build the spacecraft. It took six years to build the Starliner. It was built in 2017. Its test flights continued till 2019. But no human was involved in these flights. These were unmanned flights.
This was the whole story of the making of Starliner
The first unmanned orbital flight test took place on 20 December 2019. There was no human in this flight. But due to two software glitches, it reached another orbit. Docking with the space station could not happen. Two days later, it landed back at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Also read: What is NASA’s Crew-9 program, through which Sunita Williams will return to Earth in February
It had problems on every flight…
The second unmanned flight took place on 6 April 2020. It was to go to the space station. Docking was to be done. After this, it was to come back. But the launch had to be postponed a bit. Preparations were made to launch in August 2021. But then some deficiencies were found in the 13 propulsion valves of the spacecraft. After this, Boeing rebuilt the entire spacecraft.
Preparations were made for a trial flight in May 2022. Starliner flew again on 19 May 2022. This time two dummy astronauts were seated in it. But the orbital maneuvering and attitude control system thrusters failed. Somehow, on 22 May 2022, Starliner was connected to the space station.
Also read: SpaceX Crew Dragon: What is SpaceX’s Dragon Crew capsule that will bring Sunita Williams back to Earth?
On May 25, 2022, the Starliner returned to Earth from the space station. During reentry, the spacecraft’s navigation system malfunctioned. Communication went awry. Also, the connection with the GPS satellite was lost. But Boeing said this is normal.
Sunita’s third flight was also dangerous
The third manned flight was scheduled for 2017. But due to several reasons, it got delayed till July 2023. On 1 June 2023, Boeing said that we are postponing this flight. On 7 August 2023, the company said that all the problems of the spacecraft have been resolved. The next flight was scheduled for 6 May 2024. That is, this year.
But then this launch was postponed because there was some problem with the oxygen valve in the Atlas rocket. After this, the launch was postponed due to helium leak in the spacecraft. Finally, on June 5, Sunita Williams and Barry Butch Wilmore left for space with this spacecraft. They were supposed to return 8 days later on June 13, but till now they are stuck on the space station.
Follow us On Social Media Google News and Twitter/X
