Sunita Williams not the first woman to be ‘stuck’ in space: Interesting cases from past extended missions | Mint

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are not the only astronauts who are spending more time than scheduled in space. Now they have joined the long list of astronauts who have spent more time than scheduled on the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA has extended the stay of Sunita Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore on the ISS after the space agency decided to send the Starliner spacecraft back to Earth without a crew due to technical problems.

Boeing’s Starliner will begin its return journey on September 6, while its two-member crew will head back home on the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission in February 2025. NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission, which was scheduled to return by mid-June 2024, has now been delayed by eight months.

No ‘stuck’ and no ‘accident’

However, NASA has said that the two Starliner astronauts – Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore – are not “stranded” in space as they are “safe on the space station and conducting research and station maintenance with the Expedition 71 crew”.

The astronauts are said to be enjoying their extended mission on the International Space Station. Speaking to the media in July, Wilmore said, “It’s a wonderful place to live, a wonderful place to live and a wonderful place to work.”

NASA also refused to call the change in return plans an “accident.” Officials previously said that if NASA decides to change the mission — that the crew will go home on something other than Starliner — “…we don’t have to consider it a NASA accident.”

Sunita Williams’ mission is not the only extended mission in history

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson previously said human space flights are “risky” and “test flights, by nature, are neither safe nor routine.” Astronauts are trained and prepared for such missions.

NASA argues that extended missions provide researchers with an opportunity to better observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on astronauts.

In several scenarios, astronauts have spent longer than previously planned time in space. Here are some such cases to look at:

1. The case of Sergei Krikalev

A well-known case is that of Russian astronaut Sergei Krikalev, who spent more than 800 days on the International Space Station, the Mir space station, the Soyuz spacecraft and the space shuttle, according to NASA.

The European Space Agency said Krikalev flew on Soyuz TM-12 in May 1991. He returned to Earth in March 1992.

Krikalev was in space when the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991. According to the International Astronautical Federation, his return was delayed and he remained on the MIR space station for 311 continuous days, twice the time scheduled for the mission.

“During that time the Soviet Union collapsed and a new Russia was born. For this reason Krikalev is sometimes called ‘the last Soviet citizen,'” the New Mexico Museum of Space History says on its website.

According to the European Space Agency, in July 1991 Krikalev agreed to remain on Mir as flight engineer for the next crew, scheduled to arrive in October, as the next two planned flights had been cut down to one.

Read the story behind the incredible journey of the Apollo 13 mission crew here

2. The case of Frank Rubio

Have you heard the one about the tomatoes lost in space? NASA astronaut Frank Rubio was at the center of the “tomatoes lost in space” controversy.

NASA said Rubio’s mission is the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut in history. He spent 371 days in space aboard the International Space Station in a “record-breaking mission.”

He took off on September 21, 2022 on a Roscosmos Soyuz MS-22 along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin. He was scheduled to return to Earth on the same spacecraft in March 2023. However, he was scheduled to fly on a different Soyuz in September 2023.

Rubio’s mission was delayed due to a coolant leak in his Soyuz spacecraft. According to the New York Times, the leak could have caused potentially deadly hot temperatures for the crew upon return to Earth, so a different spacecraft was sent to the space station.

This forced Rubio and his two Russian crewmates to extend their stay on the International Space Station (ISS) for another six months, Space.com reports.

During his stay on the International Space Station, Frank Rubio was accused of eating the first tomato he cut on the space station in 2022. However, the case was not what was feared. Read more about the ‘strange’ story of the lost tomatoes here.

3. Columbia Space Shuttle Accident Consequences

The Expedition 6 crew of the International Space Station – American astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit, and Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin – returned to Earth on May 4, 2003 after spending 162 days in space.

The European Space Agency said that initially, “the Expedition 6 crew was to be relieved by a new crew arriving on Space Shuttle flight STS-114 in March”.

The European Space Agency had said, “Following the Columbia accident, the European Space Agency agreed to postpone Pedro Duque’s station mission, previously scheduled for April, by six months, making the Soyuz flight available to relieve the Expedition 6 crew.”

Two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut spent three additional months on the ISS after the Columbia space shuttle disintegrated into thousands of pieces during re-entry into the atmosphere in February 2003. Indian-American Kalpana Chawla was among the seven astronauts killed in the accident.