Sunita Williams stuck in space: Another bad news from NASA ...

The risk from the defunct Russian satellite's debris is likely to remain for longer duration as it will takes weeks to months before the hazard has passed, said Leolabs in a statement.

“Due to the low orbit of this debris cloud, we estimate it’ll be weeks to months before the hazard has passed," Reuters quoted LeoLabs.

The Russian satellite, RESURS-P1 (#39186), broke up into hundreds of pieces in the low-Earth orbit on Wednesday. It is worth noting that there is no immediate threat to ISS astronauts. However, the incident has added to the space garbage. The US Space Command in a statement, said that the explosion left nearly 100 pieces of trackable debris in space.

The aircraft broke into pieces at around 10 am Mountain Time (1600 GMT) on Wednesday, according to Space Command. The breakdown was reported to have been occurred in an orbit near the space station. Due to the incident, all the astronauts on board, including Sunita Williams, were asked to take shelter in their spacecraft for roughly an hour. 

So far, NASA or any other agency linked with Sunita Williams' Boeing Starliner program has not officially announced the impact of the incident on her return spaceflight to Earth. 

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams boarded their Starliner spacecraft, the Boeing-built capsule that has been docked since June 6 in its first crewed test mission on the station.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore's space programme was supposed to be of few days. However, their return flight from Boeing Starliner is likely to be delayed for months, reported ANI. 

Projected to last only days, the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft with two astronauts onboard is in limbo with no exact return to Earth announced.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich has said that the US space agency is considering extending the duration of Starliner's mission from 45 days to 90 days, reported ANI citing CNN.

On Friday, Stich said that NASA is considering extending the maximum length of Starliner's mission from 45 days to 90 days and there is no firm return date on the horizon, according to CNN report.

Addressing a briefing on Friday, the NASA official said, "We're just looking at the timeline to execute (the test in New Mexico) and then review the data." He further said, “And that's what's really the long pole, I would say, determining a landing date." Stich added, “We're not in a rush to come home."

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Published: 29 Jun 2024, 11:01 AM IST