Indian-Origin Astronaut Sunita Williams TRAPPED in Space! – Boeing Starliner Disaster
Hello, friends!
On June 5th, 2024, at 10:52 AM, a Starliner spacecraft was launched in America. It was carrying two experienced astronauts from NASA: Commander Barry E. Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams. They were going on a small trip to the International Space Station.
The spacecraft they were travelling in, Starliner, is a bit special. It was built by a private company, Boeing, the same company that makes aeroplanes and recently, many of those aeroplanes crashed. This Starliner spacecraft is still in the developing stage, and this particular mission was the last step to test the capabilities of the Boeing Starliner. That’s why this mission was literally named Boeing Crew Flight Test.
A Successful Docking, But A Long Stay
The next day, after 27 hours, at 1:34 PM, this spacecraft begins docking at the International Space Station. It was a successful docking, and after some time, both the astronauts happily enter the Space Station. This successful docking meant that Boeing became the world’s second private company to make and fly a human orbital spacecraft. Before this, only SpaceX had done this.
To date, only 3 countries have been able to do this: Russia, the USA, and China. But the celebration for this good news could not last long. This Starliner mission was supposed to last only 8 days. These astronauts had to return to Earth after 8 days. But today, even after 3 months, both these astronauts are stuck in space. There are many problems with this spacecraft because of which it cannot be used again. According to NASA, these astronauts will remain there for 8 months.
The International Space Station: A Safe Haven
Before starting the video, it is important to clear one thing here, that though both of these astronauts are stuck in space, they are not in any kind of danger.
The International Space Station is more than 350 feet long end to end, and can accommodate many people. The living and working space on the ISS is bigger than a 6-bedroom house. There’s space for 6 people to sleep on the ISS. There’s enough food, water, clothes, and oxygen supply system. There are two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360Ā° view bay window. Although it is not a luxury hotel, it is a good place to stay comfortably and survive.
The ISS has its own oxygen-generating system which generates oxygen through the electrolysis of water. It also recycles oxygen. When we exhale, we release a high quantity of carbon dioxide, as well as oxygen to some extent. So, being able to extract that oxygen, recovering it and using it again, it can do that.
Similarly, there is an excellent recycling system for water too. Urine is recycled into drinking water. Apart from this, the water recycling system can also capture all traces of moisture that is released as breath or sweat.
And in terms of food, the ISS carries food reserve for 6 months. And in every 5-6 months, the crew members on the ISS keep rotating.
Expedition 71: Research and Experiments Continue
Right now, the crew members of Expedition 71 are in the ISS. The video you saw earlier in which Sunita Williams was excitedly entering the ISS, in that video, you can see other astronauts, they are a part of the Expedition 71, and were already living in the ISS.
These 4 astronauts are from NASA: Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Tracy C. Dyson. And 3 astronauts from the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos: Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin.
Typically, there are 6-7 people on these expeditions, and this number, Expedition 71, indicates that this is the 71st team of crew members that have gone to the ISS on rotation. These expeditions have been going on for 24 years, since the year 2000 when the International Space Station was first launched. Since then, the ISS hasn’t been left empty for extended periods of time. Someone or the other has lived in it.
Expedition 71 will end on September 24th, 2024, and these astronauts present in the ISS will return to Earth. And they will be replaced by the crew members of Expedition 72. And they can bring more food for these two astronauts.
For now, NASA has said that Barry and Sunita, these two astronauts, are now parts of Expeditions 71 and 72, and they are now conducting research and experiments with the other astronauts. It’s not like these two astronauts are stuck in space and are getting bored with nothing else to do.
Expedition 71 is currently researching space botany, how flowers can be grown in space, on space-caused fluid shifts, on algae-based life support systems, as well as neuro-degenerative diseases and therapies are being researched at the ISS.
The Experience of Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams
Both Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams are highly experienced astronauts. Barry is 61 years old, he had already spent 178 days in space before this mission. Sunita Williams is an Indian-origin astronaut like Kalpana Chawla, although she was born in America. She is 58 years old, and before this mission, she has been in space for 322 days. Before this, she was a part of the Expeditions 14, 15, 32, and 33. She was also the commander of Expedition 33, so you can see how experienced she is.
So, overall, these two astronauts should not have any problem, because they’ll have food, water, and oxygen. Clothes were a little problematic because they were carrying clothes for only 8 days, they weren’t carrying many things. But to solve this, NASA sent a shipment of their personal belongings on August 6th.
Understanding Orbital Spacecrafts and Boeing’s Starliner
So, this was about the astronauts. But now, let’s talk about the problematic part, this Starliner spacecraft.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is an orbital spacecraft. Its name is Cruise Space Transportation-100 Starliner, also known as CST-100 Spaceliner. After SpaceX, Boeing is the only private company that has been able to launch an orbital spacecraft to the ISS.
Now, what does an orbital spacecraft mean? An orbital spacecraft is a spacecraft that are launched at such high velocities that they can reach Earth’s orbit and then orbit around the Earth. It requires a speed of more than 28,000 km per hour.
On the other hand, suborbital spacecrafts reach the edge of space, but they cannot reach high enough to orbit Earth. They reach the orbit for a while, experience a little weightlessness, and then they come back down. The typical velocity of a suborbital spacecraft is less than 7,000 km per hour.
Clearly, building an orbital spacecraft is much more difficult than building a sub-orbital spacecraft, especially an orbital spacecraft that can facilitate humans travel. Apart from the private companies SpaceX and Boeing, only 3 countries have been able to make a human orbital spacecraft: China, Russia, and the USA. And India is trying. Our Gaganyaan mission will aim at this, sending humans to space in an orbital spacecraft. The first orbital test flight will be in December this year. Although, it will be an uncrewed flight, that is, there won’t be humans in it. For the first test, they will seat a humanoid, named Vyomitra. Basically, they will test the spacecraft using this doll. Because if we start by sending humans, and if a problem arises, it can be devastating.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and Boeing’s Starliner
If we come back to NASA, they started their commercial crew program in 2011, according to which they can collaborate with private companies. Many companies bid for this program including Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada, and in 2014, SpaceX and Boeing were selected for this program.
The first SpaceX Crew-1 flight was launched in November 2020, and it was a success. This was their spacecraft named Crew Dragon. It looks very similar to Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft which looks like this. The crew module can seat 7 people. There is a window and a side hatch. You can see its interiors too, showing a 5-person crew set-up. The noteworthy elements are its thrusters. These help the spacecraft fly, and move in different directions.
These thrusters became the root of the problem due to which these astronauts are stuck in space right now.
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Examining Boeing’s History of Failures
Here, let’s thank Star Health for sponsoring this video, and now, let’s get back to the topic.
The first launch date for Starliner CST was set to May 6th, 2024. The launch of June 5th was actually planned for May 6th. But on May 6th, only 2 hours before the launch, the countdown was stopped due to a faulty pressure valve. The Atlas V rocket to which this spacecraft is attached, had a faulty pressure valve.
Then on June 1st, another attempt was made, but it was cancelled again just 4 minutes before the launch. This time, instead of a human, a computer abort system was the one to cancel it.
And then on June 5th, you’ll find it hard to believe that before this scheduled launch, Boeing and NASA’s engineers were trying to manage a helium leak. Helium is the main gas which runs the propulsion system and fires the spacecraft’s thrusters. When this spacecraft attaches to the International Space Station, and docks in it, bringing it to the exact line, docking, undocking, these are done by the thrusters. And to operate these thrusters, helium is needed.
NASA and Boeing engineers said that there was a helium leak due to a defective seal. But this leak was not a big deal. It was manageable, and wasn’t supposed to cause a big problem. This is why the launch was postponed once again.
But a few hours after the launch, two more leaks were discovered. When Starliner reaches the space station, they discover a fourth helium leak. After 4 leaks, the Commercial Crew Program Manager of Boeing finally admitted that they don’t know what is the problem, and that they need to first understand the root cause. This is not an isolated error, this is a major systematic problem.
The Overheating Problem and Starliner’s Previous Tests
Apart from this, another problem arose hours before the docking of the Starliner. It was found that 5 out of the 28 thrusters on the Starliner were not working properly. Seeing this happen, Spacecraft Commander Barry Wilmore had to manually control the spacecraft. Working with the engineers on the ground, he reset the thrusters and fired them again. 4 out of 5 thrusters start working again, and so, the Starliner successfully docked at the ISS.
Steve Stich, the Commercial Crew Program Manager at NASA, says that this failure was due to a data issue. It had nothing to do with the hardware of the thruster.
But because of all these problems, NASA had to face several questions. Could the astronauts rely on the Starliner spacecraft to return to Earth, considering the numerous leaks and thrusters not working properly?
After June 6th, NASA and Boeing conducted some hot fire tests to check these thrusters. In these tests, they noticed that these thrusters were overheating, and that is why they weren’t working properly. They found that due to direct sunlight exposure on the capsule’s manual control system, there was substantial overheating. When these thrusters were tested again without sunlight, they were found to be operating normally.
But overall, the engineers weren’t sure whether the overheating problem would recur when the Starliner returns. This is why it was decided that the Starliner would return to Earth without the astronauts, and for now, those astronauts would remain in the space station.
Overall, this is good news that NASA prioritized safety, otherwise everyone was reminded of the 2003 Challenger disaster when Kalpana Chawla was returning to Earth and her spacecraft exploded. I talked about it in detail in the video on Kalpana Chawla, about the exact mistakes back then.
Bringing the Astronauts Back: A SpaceX Solution
Here, NASA has decided to bring Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore back to Earth using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. In February 2025, when SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission will go to the ISS, in that mission, instead of 4 astronauts, only 2 will be sent. So that these two astronauts can return with it. But because this can be possible only in February next year, so in total, these two astronauts will spend almost 9 months in space.
NASA’s Steve Stich calls Starliner a very capable spacecraft. He believes that it is not a bad spacecraft. But the two Starliner missions of before this, when it was tested without a crew, without humans, one of those tests had failed.
Boeing’s Past Failures and Concerns
The first Boeing Starliner mission was held on December 20th, 2019, known as the Orbital Flight Test. There weren’t any humans in it, rather, it carried the doll Rosie the Rocketeer, similar to the doll that would be carried by the Gaganyaan in a few months. The purpose of this mission was to remain in space for 8 days, dock at the International Space Station, and to return to Earth. But this mission was aborted just 2 days later. Starliner could not dock at the International Space Station.
And why could it not? NASA and Boeing formed a joint review team to investigate this, and this team gave about 80 recommendations to NASA and Boeing to solve this problem. Once again, the reason behind this was that Starliner’s thrusters could not fire on time, and so it could not reach the right orbit. The reason behind this was found to be the computer system’s miscalibration of timing.
Steve Stich had then said that NASA could not provide sufficient oversight to Boeing, because of which there were these software problems.
The second test was conducted on May 19th, 2022, Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2, and this time, it was successful. Rosie the Rocketeer actually reached the ISS. But even in that test, there were some glitches. Some thrusters weren’t operating properly, the same problem as this year’s launch.
Interestingly, when NASA awarded the contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in 2014, the worth of SpaceX’s contract was around $2.6 billion, and Boeing’s contract was worth $4.2 billion. But today, SpaceX has left Boeing so far behind that it is soon going to attempt one of the most riskiest missions. The world’s first private spacewalk by an astronaut, a 20-minute spacewalk in which astronauts will take a walk outside the spacecraft.
Boeing’s Issues Beyond Space: The 737 MAX Crisis
But Boeing’s problems are not limited to space. Even as an airline company, Boeing has been subjected to criticism for the past few years. This is caused by Boeing’s new 737 MAX commercial aeroplane, and its deadly failures.
On January 5th of this year, a Boeing 737 MAX of the Alaska Airlines took off for a normal flight from Portland, USA to Ontario. As soon as the plane reached an altitude of 16,000 feet, a door of the plane completely broke apart. This caused a huge hole, and led to rapid decompression. People’s phones, laptops, and everything that was light and not secured, flew out of the plane. Thankfully, since the passengers were wearing seat belts, no passenger fell out of the plane. They survived.
But a few days later, during the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation, the cause was discovered to be loose hardware. The bolts in the door needed additional tightening. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines grounded all their 737 MAX aeroplanes. And in their investigations, it was found that there were loose parts in many Boeing aeroplanes.
Before this, in 2018, there was a faulty sensor in their plane, due to which Lion Air Flight 610 crashed in Indonesia shortly after the take-off. All passengers and crew members of the flight were killed. After that, in 2019, a similar incident happened with the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. The plane crashed, and all passengers were killed.
It was revealed that the software installed by Boeing in the plane was a problematic software, in some cases, it took away the control from the pilots. The plane crashed due to the glitchy software, and though the pilots tried their best to control the plane, they were unsuccessful.
When this happened, all the Boeing 737 MAX planes were grounded for 20 months. Their safety enhancements were rechecked, and only after December 2020, did the plane re-enter into service. And now, in 2024, we are seeing more and more problems.
Think about it. There have been many fake conspiracy theories regarding these plane crashes, but in reality, no one except the company can be blamed for those.
The CEO of Boeing has stated that he will step down from his position by the end of this year. This is an equally important but separate issue, the carelessness of Boeing and their failures. It has also been reported that the whistleblower who was about to testify against the company d!ed under sudden and mysterious circumstances.
Anyhow, that can be a separate video, but for now, let’s end this video here. Star Health Insurance’s link is in the description below. If you liked this video, you can click here to watch the video on Kalpana Chawla.
Thank you very much!
