Why Starliner's Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore were not on board the SpaceX capsule that returned to Earth

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A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four members of the Crew-8 mission departed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday after an interstellar stay of 235 days, marking the Elon Musk-led company's longest human mission. Splashing down off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, just before 3:30 am ET on Friday, October 25, the spacecraft safely landed in the Gulf of Mexico. However, this capsule, too, did not have any room for NASA’s stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who left the home plant in June, believing they would be back home about one week later.

The NASA duo has since faced a series of setbacks that commenced with helium leaks and thruster malfunctions tied to their Boeing Starliner, which lifted off on June 4. Over four months later, Williams and Wilmore are still very much a point of interest as the world awaits their return to Earth. In August, NASA ultimately raised its hands in defeat, signalling that they wouldn’t return aboard the Starliner. Despite the rumoured tensions that possibly shaped into a rift between the US government agency and Boeing, NASA firmly established that it was dedicated to preserving its astronauts’ well-being above everything else.

And so, the Starliner spacecraft embarked on its journey home, unmanned, as it returned without its original crew members on September 6. In the meantime, Williams and Wilmore await the fruition of NASA’s new rescue mission for them, which eventually enlisted Musk’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which had yet to depart for the space station. With two seats empty on board the Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, the SpaceX capsule lifted off on September 28. Two other astronauts, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, were meant to take off for the ISS with Hague and Gorbunov. Alas, their interstellar journey was not meant to be, as the company had to make room for the stranded astronauts, whose homecoming is currently slated for not before February 2025.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore not on board the SpaceX Crew-8 mission spacecraft landing on October 25

Why didn’t Williams and Wilmore board the early-leaving Crew-8 mission spacecraft that could have brought them home today? The reason is simple: they were not assigned to the spacecraft. This mission’s capsule had already been assigned two four NASA astronauts, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos’ Alexander Grebenkin, leaving no room for anyone. The Crew-8 members launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 4, three months before Williams and Wilmore’s now-beleaguered spacecraft launched on an Atlas V rocket, marking the Starliner’s first crewed takeoff to the ISS

As of now, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have spent more than 18 weeks on the ISS. With another four or five months remaining before they join their two Crew-9 members on board the Crew Dragon, the pair is hard at work. According to CNN, they’ve joined Expedition 72, the international crew of astronauts serving as the ISS’ official staff.

What are the stranded NASA astronauts up to on the ISS?

During a September 22 ceremony, the Indian-origin astronaut even became the commander of the space station for the second time. Having spent all this time there, the NASA pair has warmed up to regular duties on the space station, naturally mingling with other staffers.

They’ve also been assigned their respective spots, and their responsibilities have doubled as part of the Crew-9 mission. Williams and Wilmore will participate in customary crew work, resulting in spacewalks outside the ISS and other science experiments.

Dana Weigel, NASA’s manager of the ISS Program, also announced during an early August briefing that they had already ensured that they had the “right resources, supplies and training for the crew” if they had to extend their stay on the ISS, especially since the Starliner’s journey was a test flight.

“Butch and Suni are fully trained,” Weigel further noted. “They’re capable and current with EVA (spacewalks), with robotics, with all the things we need them to do.”

Now that Crew-8 has safely landed on Earth, Crew-9's Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, and their new crewmates Williams and Wilmore will help switch their capsule to the port that opened up after Crew-8 undocked from the space station. NASA’s recent updates revealed that the OG Starliner astronauts had invested their time in training for the task.

An October 18 update revealed, “Williams spent her shift in the Quest airlock cleaning cooling loops on a spacesuit and checking the suit’s other components.” Meanwhile, “ Wilmore set up the Sphere Cam-2 and filmed activities in the Destiny laboratory module in ultra-high resolution testing its ability to provide highly detailed mission imagery on future missions.”

Nasa Manned Moon Mission :Indian-American astronaut Raja Jon Chari is a part of 18 member team

 A graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and US Naval pilot School, Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari is the only Indian-American within the list. He was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class.

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SciTech News/NASA: Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari,an Indian-American US Air Force colonel, is among 18 astronauts, half them women, who are selected by NASA for its ambitious manned mission to the Moon and beyond.

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The modern lunar exploration programme will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the last decade , the American space agency said.

NASA on Wednesday named the 18 astronauts who will train for its Artemis moon-landing programme.

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Chari, 43, a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and US Naval pilot School, is that the only Indian-American within the list.

He was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class.

He reported for duty in August 2017 and having completed the initial astronaut candidate training is now eligible for a mission assignment.

“My fellow Americans, I give you the heroes of the future who will carry us back to the Moon and beyond: the Artemis Generation”, vice president Mike Pence said at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday.

“It really is amazing to think that the next man and the first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read… We started today reflecting on a great hero of the past. The Artemis Generation are the heroes of american space exploration in the future”, Pence said after he introduced the members of the Artemis Team during the eighth National Space Council meeting.

Also Read|‘unusual bright light’ discovered by the Astronomers which cannot be explained

The astronauts on the Artemis Team come from a various range of backgrounds, expertise and experience. Most of the astronauts within the group are in their 30s or 40s. The oldest is 55, the youngest 32.

NASA will announce flight assignments for astronauts later, pulling from the Artemis Team. Additional Artemis Team members, including international partner astronauts, will join this group, as needed.

“We are incredibly grateful for the president and vice president’s support of the Artemis program, as well as the bipartisan support for all of NASA’s science, aeronautics research, technology development, and human exploration goals”, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

“As a result, we’re excited to share this next step in exploration – naming the Artemis Team of astronauts who will lead the way, which includes the first woman and next man to walk on the lunar surface”, he added.

The selected astronauts will help NASA prepare for the coming Artemis missions, which begin next year working with the agency’s commercial partners as they develop human landing systems; assisting within the development of training; defining hardware requirements; and consulting on technical development. They also will engage the general public and industry on NASA’s exploration plans.

“There is so much exciting work ahead of us as we return to the moon, and it will take the entire astronaut corps to form that happen”, Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester said.

“Walking on the lunar surface would be a dream come true for any one of us, and any part we can play in making that happen is an honour,” he said.

The other members on the list include Christina Koch and Jessica Meir — the 2 astronauts who performed the world’s first all-female spacewalk last year.

‘unusual bright light’ discovered by the Astronomers which cannot be explained

 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was able to capture the glow within three days using the Hubble Space Telescope but the results were baffling.

On the left is an image of the Sombrero galaxy, and on the right side shows the detail in which Hubble was able to capture of the stars in the halo.

NASA/Digitized Sky Survey/P. Goudfrooij (STScI)/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

SciTech News: Astronomers found a unique celestial event as they found the brightest infrared from a short gamma-ray burst ever seen. the rationale why it's so important is because of the glow produced is brighter than what was previously considered as maximum. The half-a-second flash of light from a very violent explosion was detected earlier this year in May. The energy was produced by the explosion of gamma rays billions of light-years faraway from earth which contains more energy than what our Sun will produce in its lifetime.

“It’s amazing to me that after 10 years of studying the same type of phenomenon, we can discover unprecedented behaviour like this,” said Wen-fai Fong, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University and lead author of the study. “It just reveals the diversity of explosions that the universe is capable of producing, which is very exciting.”

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was able to spot the glow within three days using the Hubble Space Telescope. However, the results were baffling because it was 10 times brighter than the earlier prediction.

“These observations don't fit traditional explanations for brief gamma-ray bursts,” said Fong. “Given what we all know about the radio and X-rays from this blast, it just doesn’t match up. The near-infrared emission that we’re finding with Hubble is much too bright.”

In order to know the exact levels of brightness and therefore the distance of the origin, WM Keck Observatory on mauna kea in Hawaii was used by the team.

Scientists believe that explosions like these are caused by two merging neutron stars which cause short gamma ray bursts which will create immense levels of energy. This phenomenon is named Kilonova. These stars are dense to an extent that even a teaspoon of it on Earth can weigh a billion tons. Typically, it's the mass of our Sun compressed into a small city.

“What we detected even outshines the one confirmed kilonova discovered in 2017,” said co-author Jillian Rastinejad, a graduate student with Fong’s team at Northwestern University. “As a first-year graduate student working with real-time data for the first time when this burst happened, it’s remarkable to see our discovery motivate a new and exciting magnetar-boosted model.”

In the future, these events are often recorded better with NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope which will help scientists understand them better.

“Distances are important in calculating the burst’s true brightness as opposed to its apparent brightness as seen from Earth,” said Fong. “Just as the brightness of a light bulb when it reaches your eye depends on both its luminosity and its distance from you, a burst could be really bright because either it is intrinsically luminous and distant, or not as luminous but much closer to us. With Keck, we were able to determine the true brightness of the burst and thus the energy scale. We found it was to be much more energetic than we originally thought.”

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SpaceX launches 4 astronauts to space station, beginning new era for NASA

Massive Asteroid 'Apophis',May Hit Earth in 2068,We have no solution,says Elon Musk

SpaceX launches 4 astronauts to space station, beginning new era for NASA

 The Dragon will ferry the astronauts to the space station on SpaceX’s first operational trip following a test flight with a two-person crew that returned from the orbiting lab three months ago.

Image Source: Google

SciTech News: Four astronauts reached orbit on a SpaceX rocket after lifting off at 7:27 p.m. from Florida, within the company’s first regular NASA mission to the International space station. The Sunday launch seemed to go as planned as the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The rocket’s first stage successfully landed on a drone ship about nine minutes after take off .

The Dragon will ferry the astronauts to the space station on SpaceX’s first operational trip following a test flight with a two-person crew that returned from the orbiting lab three months ago.

The latest launch, referred to as the Crew-1 mission, comes 18 years after Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. with the ultimate goal of populating other planets. The Crew-1 mission marks an important milestone within the development of a space industry during which private-sector companies provide business and tourism services in low-earth orbit. Following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co. nearly $7 billion in contracts to create new transport systems to the space station as a part of the agency’s Commercial Crew program.The launch was originally slated for Saturday, but was scrubbed due to bad weather condition.

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In the Crew-1 mission, Commander Michael Hopkins, 51, an Air Force colonel and test pilot, will make his second trip to the space station, seven years after his first. He’ll be joined by three others on the mission:

Shannon Walker, 55, a physicist and Houston native, will serve her second stint on the orbiting lab.

Victor Glover, 44, a Navy pilot from California, are going to be taking his first flight to space. He’ll be the first Black astronaut to stay on the space station for a full six-month rotation, according to NASA.

Soichi Noguchi, 55, a Japanese astronaut and aeronautical engineer, has the most space experience among the crew and can become one among the only a few people to go away the world on three vehicles: Russia’s Soyuz, the space shuttle, and therefore the SpaceX Dragon.

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Massive Asteroid 'Apophis',May Hit Earth in 2068,We have no solution,says Elon Musk

NASA Publishes Plan to Land First Woman on Moon in 2024

Massive Asteroid 'Apophis',May Hit Earth in 2068,We have no solution,says Elon Musk

 Astronomers have revealed that a large asteroid named 'Apophis' is predicted to pass extremely close or may hit the earth in 2068

Image Source: Google

 SciTech News: If you thought 2020 is bad, watch for the year 2068 when a large asteroid could potentially wipe all of humanity! Yes, astronomers have revealed that an asteroid named 'Apophis' is predicted to pass extremely close or may hit the earth in 2068 because of a phenomenon called Yarkovsky effect. Interestingly, the asteroid is known as after The Egyptian god of Chaos and Evil. 

Researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have announced the detection of Yarkovsky acceleration on the near-Earth asteroid Apophis. This acceleration arises from a very weak force on an object due to non-uniform thermal radiation.

Discovered in 2004, asteroid Apophis could be a 1,120-foot-wide (340-meter-wide) asteroid, about the dimensions of three-and-a-half football fields, NASA said. 

Earlier, it had been believed that the asteroid would pass by leaving the earth unscathed, but astronomers are no longer certain now. The detection of the Yarkovsky effect acting on Apophis means the 2068 impact scenario is still a possibility.

This force is especially important for the asteroid Apophis, because it affects the probability of an Earth impact in 2068, the astronomers said."

"All asteroids need to reradiate as heat the energy they absorb from sunlight in order to maintain thermal equilibrium, a process that slightly changes the orbit of the asteroid," they wrote.

Apophis is noteworthy due to its extremely close approach to the world on April 13, 2029, when the 300 metre-sized asteroid will come into sight to the unaided eye because it passes within the belt of communications satellites orbiting the world .

Earlier, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had also predicted that massive asteroid Apophis will eventually hit humanity and there'll be no solution.

Great name! Wouldn’t worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense. https://t.co/XhY8uoNNax

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2019

"Great name! Wouldn't worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defence," he wrote on the social media platform.

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NASA Publishes Plan to Land First Woman on Moon in 2024

 On Monday, NASA officially announced that a woman would set foot on the moon for the first time in 2024. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein said that NASA has decided to land a female and a male astronaut on the moon in 2024. His preparations are already underway.

Image source : Google

According to NASA administrators, NASA is arranging the lunar mission to conduct scientific research on the lunar soil, collect minerals from the lunar soil, bring it to Earth and make it economically viable.

Neil Armstrong was the first person to land on the moon on July 20, 1989. after that,the united states organized six more missions until 1982. However, the 12 other astronauts who landed on the moon through this mission were all men. As a result, for the first time in 2024, a woman is going to land on the moon.

Participants in the 2024 lunar mission will land at the moon's south pole. The mission will cost NASA about 28 billion. the cost of building the lunar landing module will be 160 million. Construction of lunar landing modules is underway in three separate projects. The astronauts, including the lander, will land on the moon in the Orion spacecraft. Before that, scientists will test Orion's flight experimentally in November 2021.

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The cracks in the earth's magnetic field have increased, broken into two pieces are in danger, said NASA

 

The cracks are getting bigger in the earth's magnetic field. Photo courtesy: NASA.

The cracks in the earth's magnetic field have become even larger. A crack has broken into two pieces. As a result, terrestrial civilizations in the area will have to deal with horrific solar particles, solar radiation, and cosmic rays.

The US space agency NASA has given this news in a recent report. As a result, the International Space Station orbiting through the area could be damaged by critical equipment of various artificial satellites. Telecommunication, electricity connection and navigation system in the area may also be disrupted.

This magnetic field of the Earth surrounds our bluish planet and extends for millions of kilometers in space. Another name for it is 'Geomagnetic Field'. It is this magnetic field that saves us every moment from the scorching solar radiation and the toxic cosmic rays. When solar radiation and cosmic rays arrive, it is this magnetic field of the earth that pushes it away, as far as possible.

From the seventies of the last century, the earth's magnetic field began to weaken. That's when a huge crack appeared in this magnetic field. Its name is 'South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA)'. This fissure exists in the Earth's magnetic field over South America and the South Atlantic Ocean.

According to a recent NASA report, the Earth's magnetic field has weakened over the past 50 years. The cracks in the earth's magnetic field over South America and the South Atlantic Ocean have become so large in size that they have even broken in two. Made of two large cracks.

NASA observed, "The cracks in the Earth's magnetic field are gradually increasing towards the west. And the magnetic field in that area is getting weaker and weaker. ”

As a result, NASA has warned that the area is in danger in the coming days. For those who live in the area, the natural magnetic 'shield' to prevent the invasion of solar particles, solar radiation and cosmic rays has become weak enough. As a result, the International Space Station orbiting the Earth through that area could suffer catastrophic damage to vital parts of artificial satellites due to solar radiation and cosmic rays.

Earlier in May, the European Space Agency (ESA) reported that the Earth's magnetic field had weakened by 9 percent in the last 200 years. And in the area of ​​the magnetic field where the crack has grown in size and broken into two pieces, the magnetic field has weakened by 8% in the last 50 years.

Scientists say that the cause of this increase in the Earth's magnetic field is geo-natural. These cracks have formed and are growing because the molten lava flow and the magnetic axis are tilted a little more deep inside the earth. The Earth's magnetic field is also increasing because the North and South Poles of the Earth are not properly north and south respectively.

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