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Sunita Williams nears return to Earth as SpaceX Falcon 9 launch successful
India Today
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3/15/2025
SpaceX Crew-10 lifted off at 4:30 AM to bring astronauts Sunita Williams and Will Pichmore back from the International Space Station after their extended 8-month mission.
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00:00
My colleague Shibu Kumar Tripathi, who is the Senior Assistant Editor, Science, is now
00:04
live with me from the National Capital.
00:07
Shibu, the first question, how easy or difficult will it be for the crew 10 to bring back Sunita
00:13
and Will Pichmore?
00:14
Good morning, everyone.
00:15
The mission is definitely very, very difficult.
00:16
Space travel is always difficult.
00:17
It's never easy, to say the least.
00:18
The crew 10 this morning launched around 4.30 a.m.
00:19
They now have about 26 hours of flight ahead of them.
00:20
They go around the planet and then rendezvous with the International Space Station tomorrow
00:34
morning, sometime around 9, 9.30.
00:36
After that, they enter the space station, a handover process will take over.
00:41
We have to know that Sunita Williams was the commander of the space station till now.
00:45
She recently gave the command to the Russian cosmonaut.
00:48
And the new team that will arrive at the space station will take command.
00:53
Post that, there's a long, close to about four to five days of handover period during
00:57
which all the science experiments, all the data, all the research that has been done
01:02
on space station will be transferred to the new crew.
01:05
The new crew, which has got all their cargo payload, will be transferred into the space
01:08
station.
01:09
And then a final date will be announced as to when the commander, when a crew line, which
01:15
also includes Sunita Williams and astronaut Bush Willmore, will begin their return journey.
01:20
This return journey is again also very, very difficult.
01:23
The re-entry is an extremely difficult process, which will take a few hours before they splash
01:28
down in the coast of Florida.
01:30
So it's a long process.
01:31
It will take about a week before this entire mission is complete.
01:35
We have just begun the entire process of relieving the current crew line space station members.
01:41
Right.
01:42
Shibu, you know, also we had heard talks earlier that Elon Musk's own SpaceX could actually
01:49
be roped in for the rescue mission.
01:51
We are seeing that happening now.
01:53
Now has this put SpaceX in the space where it has become a major player now?
01:59
It already was.
02:00
But with this rescue mission, and if this happens without any kind of glitch, then do
02:04
you believe SpaceX has made a space for itself?
02:07
Elon Musk's SpaceX has definitely made a name for itself.
02:12
We need to see that SpaceX has been the biggest contractor for NASA at the moment.
02:18
Before SpaceX, NASA used to do space shuttle missions, but that ended in about 2011, forcing
02:24
NASA to go to Russia.
02:26
Russia used to launch American astronauts.
02:28
That's when Elon Musk came in, stepped in with his Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft.
02:34
For the last four to five, six years, he has been consistently sending crew, cargo, private
02:40
missions to space.
02:41
At the moment, Elon Musk is one of the biggest players in the space game.
02:46
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is slowly picking pace.
02:50
We also need to see that both Elon Musk and Boeing, both SpaceX and Boeing got the contract
02:56
to make reusable, got the contract to make a spacecraft to send and bring back astronauts
03:01
together.
03:02
However, Elon Musk has been leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to developing the entire
03:08
system.
03:09
The Starliner spacecraft in which Saruta Williams and Butch Willmore basically traveled to the
03:13
space station in June last year was on its maiden flight.
03:17
This was a certification flight to certify that the spacecraft was fit to send and bring
03:21
back astronauts to and from the space station.
03:24
However, what we saw in the hours after the launch was that there were several technical
03:28
mishaps.
03:29
This has now placed Elon Musk as the prime player in the entire game, especially with
03:34
the inroads into the White House with President Donald Trump.
03:39
He is at the prime spot in the space exploration, not just in the US, but I think across the
03:45
world at the moment.
03:46
Shubham, NASA has been at the forefront when we speak about space missions, but the past
03:52
nine months have been very, very difficult for NASA.
03:55
Astronauts are definitely being asked about what went wrong and what is the future of
04:00
these kind of space missions?
04:02
Definitely, when Starliner launched, astronauts Saruta Williams and Butch Willmore were the
04:07
first astronauts to basically fly this spacecraft.
04:10
They knew that this entire mission comes with uncertainty.
04:14
They knew that there could be issues with the Starliner and it's expected that these
04:19
things are calibrated into the planning and processing of the entire mission.
04:23
However, what we saw was several of the thrusters, basically the mini engines that are used to
04:28
orient the spacecraft to move them forward and backwards, developed several snags.
04:33
There were helium leaks that were seen on camera coming out from the Starliner spacecraft.
04:40
Starliner, knowing at the moment, has been suffering to fix these issues.
04:45
And that's where SpaceX has come in.
04:47
They have made a spot for themselves.
04:49
So definitely these are difficult missions.
04:52
These take time. At the moment, Boeing has not given any clarity as to what issues have
04:58
they fixed so far. When can we expect the next mission to take place?
05:03
In the meantime, Elon Musk's SpaceX is moving leaps and bounds ahead.
05:09
Shibu, one of the last questions I would like to ask you is that once back on Earth, are
05:13
there major health issues that both the astronauts will be facing?
05:16
Because that has been a big concern.
05:17
We have seen those photographs coming out and they do not look healthy.
05:21
So the big question a lot of people now have in mind, will there be health issues once
05:25
both the astronauts are back on Earth?
05:28
See, we have to also understand that this was an extended mission.
05:32
Both the astronauts had gone on the space station just for an eight day mission.
05:37
This is now extended for about eight to nine months.
05:40
During a recent press conference, both the astronauts said that they are healthy.
05:43
NASA has a specific diet, extreme regulations, exercises that are designed just for the
05:50
astronauts living on the space station.
05:52
They have special gym equipments that they go through.
05:54
They have to do exercises on a daily basis.
05:56
However, they have been in space for seven to eight months without feeling any weight.
06:00
They have zero gravity.
06:02
So once they enter Earth, the first thing that they see is the extreme pressure and
06:07
the struggles of gravity that they'll have to face.
06:10
Both the astronauts have said that this will be a day by day recovery process.
06:14
So we also have to see once they splash down in coastal Florida, SpaceX and NASA will put
06:19
them in a quarantine for about a week.
06:22
After that, they'll come out.
06:23
They'll be going through several health checkups.
06:26
We have to also see that a major effect of space travel is on the bone density.
06:32
Secondly, your cardiovascular system also suffers the impact of long duration space
06:37
travel. NASA, SpaceX and several space agencies across the world, they are doing
06:41
research on how long duration space travel affects your body.
06:45
So definitely it will be a day by day process to recover and it will take them several
06:50
weeks to months to fully gain their pace and feel of the gravity once they land on the
06:55
planet. In a justful manner, even astronauts will say that even lifting a pencil would
07:02
be like doing a workout once they land on the planet.
07:05
So, yes, there are several health concerns, but they are all taken care of.
07:09
NASA is very, very particular about this.
07:11
They're very particular when it comes to astronaut health.
07:13
So we'll see how long they take to recover because the mission was unplanned.
07:19
The mission was it came on the go.
07:21
So it will take some time for them to recover.
07:25
Thank you, Sibu, for giving us all those details and also putting things in perspective.
07:29
The big question everyone at the moment is very closely looking at, will the mission be
07:33
successful? And second, what will happen with the health of the astronauts once they're
07:37
back on Earth?
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