Latest news with #BA.NStarliner
India Today
3 days ago
- Health
- India Today
NASA's Starliner crew Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams finish recovery phase
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the U.S. astronauts left on the International Space Station last year by Boeing's troubled Starliner capsule, are on the up after returning to Earth in March, emerging from weeks of physical therapy to ramp up work with Boeing and various NASA programs."Right now, we're just coming off of the rehab portion of our return," Wilmore, 62, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "Gravity stinks for a period, and that period varies for different people, but eventually you get over those neurovestibular balance type of issues."advertisementWilmore and Williams, who last year set off for an eight-day Starliner test flight that swelled into a nine-month stay in space, have had to readapt their muscles, sense of balance and other basics of Earth living in a 45-day period standard for astronauts returning from long-term space missions. The astronaut duo have spent at least two hours a day with astronaut strength and reconditioning officials within NASA's medical unit while juggling an increasing workload with Boeing's BA.N Starliner program, NASA's space station unit in Houston and agency researchers."It's been a little bit of a whirlwind," Williams, 59, said in the interview. "Because we also have obligations to all of the folks that we worked with."Williams said some of her post-spaceflight side effects were slower to clear up, and she felt tired in the late stages of recovery, as dozens of various muscles re-engaged. That made it hard for her to wake up as early in the mornings as she likes, until a little more than a week I'm up at four in the morning, and I'm like, Aha! I'm back," she had some issues with his back and neck before heading to space, being unable to turn his head all the way to the side, he said. That all went away in space where "you don't have any stress on your body."When he returned in March, gravity greeted him with the neck pain he left on Earth."We're still floating in the capsule in the ocean, and my neck starts hurting, while we still haven't even been extracted yet," he said, human body, which evolved over millions of years in the gravity of the Earth's surface, was not meant for absence of gravity triggers an array of physical effects over time, such as muscle atrophy or cardiovascular shifts that can cause a chain reaction of other health changes. Confinement in a small space and higher solar radiation in space, without the protection of Earth's atmosphere, have other PROBLEMSPropulsion system issues on Boeing's Starliner forced NASA to bring the capsule back without its crew last year and to fold the two astronauts into its normal, long-duration rotation schedule on the which has taken $2 billion in charges on its Starliner development, faces a looming decision by NASA to repair the spacecraft uncrewed before it carries humans again. Boeing spent $410 million to fly a similar uncrewed mission in 2022 after a 2019 testing Starliner uncrewed "seems like the logical thing to do," Williams said, drawing comparisons with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Russian capsules that flew uncrewed missions before putting humans aboard. She and NASA are pushing for that outcome, Williams added."I think that's the correct path," said Williams, who is "hoping Boeing and NASA will decide on that same course of action" from Starliner testing planned for the summer are expected to determine whether the spacecraft can fly humans on its next flight, NASA officials have Watch
Dubai Eye
17-03-2025
- Science
- Dubai Eye
Astronaut crew docks with ISS to replace stuck NASA pair
A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts to the International Space Station early on Sunday in a NASA crew-swap mission that will allow a pair of stuck astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to return home after nine months on the orbiting lab. About 29 hours since launching on Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Crew-10 astronauts' SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked to the ISS on Sunday. They were welcomed by the station's seven-member crew, which includes Wilmore and Williams - veteran NASA astronauts and retired Navy test pilots who have remained on the station after problems with Boeing's BA.N Starliner capsule forced NASA to bring it back empty. Otherwise a routine crew rotation flight, the Crew-10 mission is a long-awaited first step to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth - part of a plan set by NASA last year that has been given greater urgency by President Donald Trump since he took office in January. Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to depart the ISS on Wednesday along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov flew to the ISS in September on a Crew Dragon craft with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams, and that craft has been attached to the station since. The Crew-10 crew, scheduled to stay on the station for roughly six months, includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The crew-swap mission became entangled in politics as Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, who is also SpaceX's CEO, urged a quicker Crew-10 launch. They claimed, without evidence, that Trump's predecessor Joe Biden had abandoned Wilmore and Williams on the station for political reasons. Having seen their mission turn into a normal NASA rotation to the ISS, Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the other five astronauts. Williams told reporters this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. "It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us," she said.
