Washington:

The SpaceX crew that will ferry back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station docked with the orbiting laboratory Sunday, a live stream of the mission showed.

The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, with the Crew-9 mission on a Dragon spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 5:30 pm Sunday.

After docking was completed, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov boarded the station just after 7:00 pm, embracing their floating colleagues on the space station.

“What a fabulous day it was today,” NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy said at a news conference.

When Hague and Gorbunov return from the space station in February, they will bring back two space veterans — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — whose stay on the ISS was prolonged for months due to problems with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft. 

The newly developed Starliner was making its first crewed flight when it delivered Wilmore and Williams to the ISS in June.

Welcome, #Crew9! After floating through the Dragon’s hatch, our new arrivals join the crew aboard the @Space_Station. They’ll spend five months conducting @ISS_Research and maintenance on the orbiting lab. pic.twitter.com/DJX7f9vxlg

— NASA (@NASA) September 29, 2024

They were supposed to be there for only an eight-day stay, but after problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system emerged during the flight there, NASA was forced to weigh a radical change in plans.

After weeks of intensive tests on the Starliner’s reliability, the space agency finally decided to return it to Earth without its crew, and to bring the two stranded astronauts back home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.

SpaceX, the private company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has been flying regular missions every six months to allow the rotation of ISS crews.

But the launch of Crew-9 was postponed from mid-August to late September to give NASA experts more time to evaluate the reliability of the Starliner and decide how to proceed.  

It was then delayed a few more days by the destructive passage of Hurricane Helene, a powerful storm that roared into the opposite side of Florida on Thursday.

In total, Hague and Gorbunov will spend some five months on the ISS; and Wilmore and Williams, eight months.

In all, Crew-9 will conduct some 200 scientific experiments. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

The NASA-SpaceX spacecraft, carrying Crew-9 members NASA astronaut Nick Hague (commander) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov (mission specialist), was on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, in a mission that aims to bring stranded Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams back to Earth in February next year.

The NASA-SpaceX mission safely reached orbit, after it was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission is significant as it marks the first human spaceflight to launch from Space Launch Complex 40.

“SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). The new crew arrives at the orbiting lab Sunday, Sept. 29, for a five-month science mission,” NASA posted on X social media platform.

The targeted docking time is approximately 5:30 p.m. Sunday (3.30 am Monday India time), according to NASA.

The Crew-9 members will have two empty seats for NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will fill when the spacecraft returns next year.

The Crew-9 was initially expected to launch on Thursday but was postponed due to poor weather conditions due to hurricane Helene, currently impacting the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Williams and Willmore travelled to the ISS on an eight-day sojourn on the faulty Boeing’s Starliner. While the Starliner was declared unfit for human travel by NASA, and it returned safely to Earth, the astronaut duo are stuck in space.

For the first time since the May 2020 test flight, SpaceX launched two astronauts to the ISS on a Dragon spacecraft.

In a bid to make room for Williams and Willmore in the orbiting lab, NASA had pulled out two other Crew-9 members — commander Zena Cardman and three-time shuttle flier Stephanie Wilson.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is now commander of the International Space Station. She was in space on an eight-day mission that had to be extended to over eight months because the Boeing Starliner spacecraft she travelled in faced technical glitches.

NASA has announced that Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko handed over the command of the space station to Sunita Williams at a ceremony onboard the space station.

Kononenko is completing a year-long mission on the station and is among three astronauts, along with Tracy C Dyson and Nikolai Chub, who are set to return to Earth.

Williams has been working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions.

This is the second time Sunita Williams is taking command of the ISS. She last took charge 12 years back. As commander of the International Space Station, her key responsibility will be to maintain safety onboard the space station.

Speaking at the formal handover event, Sunita Williams said. “This Expedition 71 has taught all of us a lot, the ability to adapt, you adopted Butch and me even though that was not part of the plan, you welcomed us as family.”

Oleg Kononenko formally handed over a golden key to Sunita Williams — a part used in the Soyuz spacecraft’s docking port. An elated Sunita Williams was seen swirling and playing with the key in the near zero gravity environment of the ISS. In all, she has spent 431 days in space and is likely to return to Earth on the SpaceX Crew Dragon in February.

Earlier this month, Sunita Williams shared her thoughts on the unexpected delay and described the International Space Station as her “happy place”. She mentioned how life in space has not been a difficult adjustment due to her previous experience — this is her third sojourn into space.

The International Space Station is like a mini-city in space that has been flying for 25 years. The ISS weighs 419 tonnes, and costs over $150 billion. It is the size of a football field — about 109 metres long. Astronauts see 16 sunrises daily in its orbit.

On June 6, after she reached the International Space Station, Sunita Williams hugged the crew members. “A big thanks to family and friends who lived this [moment] for a long time. I think you are glad we are not with you anymore and we have another family up here which is just awesome,” she said.

Born to Dr Deepak Pandya and Bonnie Pandya, 59-year-old Sunita Williams is also a Navy-trained pilot. She is also a marathon runner and ran one while on the International Space Station.

A lover of Indian cuisine, Sunita Williams will have fish curry during her space flight, NASA has confirmed. During her earlier flights, she has enjoyed samosas in space.

Before her flight, Sunita Williams had told NDTV that she would carry an idol of Lord Ganesh with her as it was her good luck charm.

Los Angeles, United States:

A US astronaut stuck on the International Space Station said Friday he believed Boeing’s Starliner could have carried him home if more time had been available to work through the beleaguered spacecraft’s issues.

Last week, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams watched the Boeing Starliner they rode to the ISS three months prior head back to Earth without them.

“We could have gotten to the point, I believe, where we could have returned on Starliner, but we just simply ran out of time,” Wilmore said Friday in a video press conference.

On June 5, Wilmore and Williams took off aboard the Starliner as part of the vessel’s first crewed mission, in what was originally meant to be eight days in orbit.

After the Starliner ran into several technical issues, their stay is now expected to last for eight months.

Last month, NASA decided Williams and Wilmore would return in February with the Crew-9 flight of Boeing’s aerospace rival SpaceX.

Though Wilmore said he was “absolutely not” let down by the decision to stay in space, he indicated there were “disagreements” about how to handle the return.

“In this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner when we had other options,” Wilmore said.

Williams said she was “so happy” Starliner landed on Earth without issues, even if they were not on it.

“We wanted to take Starliner to the completion and land back on land at home, but you know, you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity,” she said.

Both astronauts said the support they have received has helped them transition to the new return timeline.

“I can sum it up in one word, and that’s resiliency,” Wilmore said. “We are tasked — and we learn, and we train — to handle all types of situations.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Two astronauts marooned in space may sound like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, but for two NASA crew members, it is now a reality. Commander Barry Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams are currently in limbo on the International Space Station (ISS).

They arrived in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft – the first test of the spaceship with astronauts. Wilmore and Williams were supposed to stay on the ISS for around eight days and return on the same spacecraft. But there is now debate about the safety of Starliner after it experienced helium leaks and thruster problems on its way to the ISS.

In coming days, NASA and Boeing may decide to clear Starliner to carry the astronauts back to Earth. This means their stay might not last too much longer. But if officials decide against Starliner, the astronauts face waiting an additional six months in orbit before returning. So how do astronauts cope with a potential six-month wait for a lift home?

Waiting for things is difficult at the best of times. Under normal circumstances, it is frustrating, stressful and anxiety-provoking. But in extreme situations, with high stakes, waiting can be purgatory.

Part of the reason that waiting is difficult is that it distorts our sense of time. Think of last time you were waiting for a delayed train, test results or a text from a potential new partner. Did it fly by or drag? For most people, time spent waiting crawls at a glacial pace. As a result, delays and periods of anticipation often feel much longer than they actually are.

Waiting slows our perception of time, because it changes the amount of time that we spend thinking about time. During normal daily life we often ignore time; our brains have a limited capacity. If time isn’t important, we simply don’t think about it, and this helps it to pass quickly.

When we are waiting, our desire to know when the wait is over increases how much we think about time. This “clock watching” can make the minutes and hours feel like they are passing at a snail’s pace. Stress, discomfort and pain exacerbate this effect, meaning that waiting in difficult situations can seem even longer.

Waiting also slows our perception of time because it what we do and how we feel. Normal life is busy and full of ever-changing activities and interactions. The sudden need to wait halts the flow of life, often leaving us with nothing else to do, thus increasing levels of boredom and frustration.

In general, time filled with activity passes more quickly. We all got a taste of this during COVID lockdowns. When we were stuck inside unable to see friends and engage in normal daily activities, the loss of routine and distractions caused time to drag for many.

For the astronauts stuck on the ISS, anxiety about when they will return, limited opportunities for activities and fewer opportunities to contact friends and families combine to make their wait to return home feel significantly longer than six months – if it should come to that.

However, as academics who research the effects of time on human psychology and biology, our ongoing work with crew members at research stations in Antarctica aims to shed light on whether waiting in extreme environments is different to waiting during normal daily life.

A year in Antarctica

While being stuck for six months on the ISS may sound like many people’s worst nightmare, it is not uncommon for scientists to spend long periods isolated and confined in extreme environments. Every year, organisations such as the Instituto Antártico Argentino (which uses the Belgrano II Antarctic station), the French Polar Institute and the Italian Antarctic Programme, in cooperation with the European Space Agency (which all use Antarctica’s Concordia station), send crews of people for up to 16 months to conduct research on the frozen continent.

During the March to October polar winter, teams spend six months in near darkness – and from May to August, in complete darkness – facing outside temperatures of up to -60C, wind speeds of 160 km/h (100 mph) and storms which prevent almost all outdoor activity. Limited internet coverage can also prevent constant communication with the outside world.

For the last year, we have researched how life in Antarctica influences people’s experience of time. Each month, we asked crew members how time felt like it was passing in comparison to before their mission. Trapped on base, with limited contact with the outside world, you might expect time to drag. However, our results suggest the opposite may be true.

Analysis of crew members’ experiences indicated that being constantly busy with complex tasks such as scientific research helped time to pass swiftly, according to 80% of crew responses. Only 3% of responses indicated that time actually dragged, and these reports occurred when nights were long and there was little to do.

These experiences may provide hope for those stuck on the ISS. Like life on an Antarctic station, these Nasa astronauts have a busy and mentally demanding existence. These factors may help time to pass quickly.

However, a key factor of their wait may be their ability to tolerate the uncertainty of when they will return. Wilmore and Williams will spend their time in a space equivalent to the inside a Boeing 747 plane. But better information about “when” things will happen and “why” delays are being incurred can help people to tolerate waiting and reduce its impact on their wellbeing.

(Authors:Ruth Ogden, Professor of the Psychology of Time, Liverpool John Moores University and Daniel Eduardo Vigo, Senior Researcher in Chronobiology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Argentina)

(Disclosure Statement: Ruth Ogden receives funding from The British Academy, The Wellcome Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, CHANSE and Horizon 2020. This piece was written as part of the Wellcome Trust Project “After the End” 225238/Z/22/Z. The work reported in this article is in collaboration with ESA and IIA as part of the SPACE-TIME project. Daniel Vigo is a research career awardee from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and a senior professor at the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA). The work reported in this article is conducted as part of a collaboration between UCA, CONICET, the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA), the Joint Antarctic Command, and the Health Coordination of the Defense Ministry, under the frame of an agreement signed between the European Space Agency (ESA), the IAA, and the National Commission on Space Activities (CONAE)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
 

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Washington:

NASA administrator Bill Nelson has said that the US space agency will expand collaboration with India and it will include a “joint effort” aboard the International Space Station with an Indian astronaut.

Nelson’s comments came after a fact sheet issued by the US and India after the iCET Dialogue between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Monday said they were working toward commencing advanced training for ISRO astronauts in the US.

“Building on my visit to India last year, NASA continues to further the United States and India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology for the benefit of humanity. Together we are expanding our countries’ collaboration in space, to include a joint effort aboard the International Space Station with an ISRO astronaut,” Nelson, wrote on X on Wednesday.

“While specific details about the mission are still in work, these efforts will support future human spaceflight and improve life here on Earth,” Nelson said.

In New Delhi, Mr Sullivan and Mr Doval on Monday said they concluded the Strategic Framework for Human Spaceflight Cooperation to deepen interoperability in space and are working toward commencing advanced training for ISRO astronauts at the NASA Johnson Space Centre.

The two leaders exchanged views on securing a carrier for the first-ever joint effort between NASA and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) astronauts at the International Space Station, which will mark a significant milestone in the India-US space partnership and space exploration.

They also noted that the space agencies of the two countries are preparing for the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, a jointly developed satellite that will map the entirety of the Earth’s surface twice every 12 days as part of efforts to combat climate change and other global challenges together.

The meeting between Mr Sullivan and Mr Doval also concluded that India and the US must remain at the forefront of developing critical technologies as part of a larger strategic interest.

Ajit Doval and his counterpart also unveiled a raft of transformative initiatives to deepen India-US cooperation in areas of artificial intelligence, semiconductor, critical minerals, advanced telecommunication and defence space.

The iCET was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in May 2022 to forge greater collaboration between India and the US in areas of critical technologies.

Sullivan visited Delhi from June 17 to 18, the first trip to India by a senior Biden Administration official after the Modi government came to power for the third term.

The US National Security Adviser was accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising senior US government officials and industry leaders.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)