Sunita Williams nears return to Earth as SpaceX Falcon 9 launch successful

India Today

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.

Transcript

00:00My colleague Shibu Kumar Tripathi, who is the Senior Assistant Editor, Science, is now

00:04live with me from the National Capital.

00:07Shibu, the first question, how easy or difficult will it be for the crew 10 to bring back Sunita

00:13and Will Pichmore?

00:14Good morning, everyone.

00:15The mission is definitely very, very difficult.

00:16Space travel is always difficult.

00:17It's never easy, to say the least.

00:18The crew 10 this morning launched around 4.30 a.m.

00:19They now have about 26 hours of flight ahead of them.

00:20They go around the planet and then rendezvous with the International Space Station tomorrow

00:34morning, sometime around 9, 9.30.

00:36After that, they enter the space station, a handover process will take over.

00:41We have to know that Sunita Williams was the commander of the space station till now.

00:45She recently gave the command to the Russian cosmonaut.

00:48And the new team that will arrive at the space station will take command.

00:53Post that, there's a long, close to about four to five days of handover period during

00:57which all the science experiments, all the data, all the research that has been done

01:02on space station will be transferred to the new crew.

01:05The new crew, which has got all their cargo payload, will be transferred into the space

01:08station.

01:09And then a final date will be announced as to when the commander, when a crew line, which

01:15also includes Sunita Williams and astronaut Bush Willmore, will begin their return journey.

01:20This return journey is again also very, very difficult.

01:23The re-entry is an extremely difficult process, which will take a few hours before they splash

01:28down in the coast of Florida.

01:30So it's a long process.

01:31It will take about a week before this entire mission is complete.

01:35We have just begun the entire process of relieving the current crew line space station members.

01:41Right.

01:42Shibu, you know, also we had heard talks earlier that Elon Musk's own SpaceX could actually

01:49be roped in for the rescue mission.

01:51We are seeing that happening now.

01:53Now has this put SpaceX in the space where it has become a major player now?

01:59It already was.

02:00But with this rescue mission, and if this happens without any kind of glitch, then do

02:04you believe SpaceX has made a space for itself?

02:07Elon Musk's SpaceX has definitely made a name for itself.

02:12We need to see that SpaceX has been the biggest contractor for NASA at the moment.

02:18Before SpaceX, NASA used to do space shuttle missions, but that ended in about 2011, forcing

02:24NASA to go to Russia.

02:26Russia used to launch American astronauts.

02:28That's when Elon Musk came in, stepped in with his Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft.

02:34For the last four to five, six years, he has been consistently sending crew, cargo, private

02:40missions to space.

02:41At the moment, Elon Musk is one of the biggest players in the space game.

02:46Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is slowly picking pace.

02:50We also need to see that both Elon Musk and Boeing, both SpaceX and Boeing got the contract

02:56to make reusable, got the contract to make a spacecraft to send and bring back astronauts

03:01together.

03:02However, Elon Musk has been leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to developing the entire

03:08system.

03:09The Starliner spacecraft in which Saruta Williams and Butch Willmore basically traveled to the

03:13space station in June last year was on its maiden flight.

03:17This was a certification flight to certify that the spacecraft was fit to send and bring

03:21back astronauts to and from the space station.

03:24However, what we saw in the hours after the launch was that there were several technical

03:28mishaps.

03:29This has now placed Elon Musk as the prime player in the entire game, especially with

03:34the inroads into the White House with President Donald Trump.

03:39He is at the prime spot in the space exploration, not just in the US, but I think across the

03:45world at the moment.

03:46Shubham, NASA has been at the forefront when we speak about space missions, but the past

03:52nine months have been very, very difficult for NASA.

03:55Astronauts are definitely being asked about what went wrong and what is the future of

04:00these kind of space missions?

04:02Definitely, when Starliner launched, astronauts Saruta Williams and Butch Willmore were the

04:07first astronauts to basically fly this spacecraft.

04:10They knew that this entire mission comes with uncertainty.

04:14They knew that there could be issues with the Starliner and it's expected that these

04:19things are calibrated into the planning and processing of the entire mission.

04:23However, what we saw was several of the thrusters, basically the mini engines that are used to

04:28orient the spacecraft to move them forward and backwards, developed several snags.

04:33There were helium leaks that were seen on camera coming out from the Starliner spacecraft.

04:40Starliner, knowing at the moment, has been suffering to fix these issues.

04:45And that's where SpaceX has come in.

04:47They have made a spot for themselves.

04:49So definitely these are difficult missions.

04:52These take time. At the moment, Boeing has not given any clarity as to what issues have

04:58they fixed so far. When can we expect the next mission to take place?

05:03In the meantime, Elon Musk's SpaceX is moving leaps and bounds ahead.

05:09Shibu, one of the last questions I would like to ask you is that once back on Earth, are

05:13there major health issues that both the astronauts will be facing?

05:16Because that has been a big concern.

05:17We have seen those photographs coming out and they do not look healthy.

05:21So the big question a lot of people now have in mind, will there be health issues once

05:25both the astronauts are back on Earth?

05:28See, we have to also understand that this was an extended mission.

05:32Both the astronauts had gone on the space station just for an eight day mission.

05:37This is now extended for about eight to nine months.

05:40During a recent press conference, both the astronauts said that they are healthy.

05:43NASA has a specific diet, extreme regulations, exercises that are designed just for the

05:50astronauts living on the space station.

05:52They have special gym equipments that they go through.

05:54They have to do exercises on a daily basis.

05:56However, they have been in space for seven to eight months without feeling any weight.

06:00They have zero gravity.

06:02So once they enter Earth, the first thing that they see is the extreme pressure and

06:07the struggles of gravity that they'll have to face.

06:10Both the astronauts have said that this will be a day by day recovery process.

06:14So we also have to see once they splash down in coastal Florida, SpaceX and NASA will put

06:19them in a quarantine for about a week.

06:22After that, they'll come out.

06:23They'll be going through several health checkups.

06:26We have to also see that a major effect of space travel is on the bone density.

06:32Secondly, your cardiovascular system also suffers the impact of long duration space

06:37travel. NASA, SpaceX and several space agencies across the world, they are doing

06:41research on how long duration space travel affects your body.

06:45So definitely it will be a day by day process to recover and it will take them several

06:50weeks to months to fully gain their pace and feel of the gravity once they land on the

06:55planet. In a justful manner, even astronauts will say that even lifting a pencil would

07:02be like doing a workout once they land on the planet.

07:05So, yes, there are several health concerns, but they are all taken care of.

07:09NASA is very, very particular about this.

07:11They're very particular when it comes to astronaut health.

07:13So we'll see how long they take to recover because the mission was unplanned.

07:19The mission was it came on the go.

07:21So it will take some time for them to recover.

07:25Thank you, Sibu, for giving us all those details and also putting things in perspective.

07:29The big question everyone at the moment is very closely looking at, will the mission be

07:33successful? And second, what will happen with the health of the astronauts once they're

07:37back on Earth?

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