NASA scientists Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are on the International Space Station (ISS), said on Friday that they will cast their vote from space in the upcoming US elections. They said that they are very excited about this. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has decided that bringing two astronauts, including Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, to Earth in Boeing’s new ‘capsule’ can be very risky, so they will be brought back next year in a ‘SpaceX’ spacecraft. That is, their program of a few weeks on the ISS has now been postponed for a full 8 months. Meanwhile, they are planning to vote from the ISS itself. The International Space Station is located at an altitude of more than 400 kilometers from the Earth. It revolves in the low orbit of the Earth and takes about 90 minutes to complete one revolution at this height.
Responding to a question related to voting, Butch Wilmore said, “I have started the process of sending my ballot today. This is an important duty and NASA ensures that we can vote.” Sunita Williams also agreed with this and said that she is excited to vote from space. These two astronauts will now return next year through Elon Musk’s SpaceX capsule. Earlier, the Boeing Starliner capsule carrying them was not considered safe due to technical problems, due to which their return was delayed.
Sunita said that both she and Butch were aware that this was a test flight and it might take longer than expected. She said, “It was not difficult to understand that we might have to stay on the ISS for a longer time.” Butch Wilmore said, “We face all kinds of difficulties, whether it is eight days or eight months. We will do our best. This is our approach.”
Sunita also admitted that she was a little worried about not being able to return home soon. She said, “I was looking forward to spending time with family, especially my mother. We had made some plans which are now on hold, but everyone was okay with it and that prepared us.”
Wilmore and Williams are now working as regular crew members of the space station and participating in routine maintenance and experiments. Both astronauts will stay on the ISS until the end of February and return to Earth via SpaceX capsule. The two astronauts, who went to space for a week as part of a test flight, will now have to stay there for more than eight months. They have been stranded on the International Space Station since early June.
There is a problem in bringing them back to Earth after their journey to the space station was interrupted due to the failure of the thrusters in the new capsule and a helium leak. After almost three months, finally on Saturday, NASA’s top officials decided to postpone their return till February. Butch Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth in February via SpaceX’s spacecraft. NASA chief Bill Nelson said, “Test flights are neither safe nor regular. Therefore, this decision has been taken keeping safety in mind.” NASA’s assistant administrator Jim Free said, “This is not an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right decision.”
For now, Boeing’s first astronaut mission ended on Friday night with the spacecraft returning to Earth without bringing astronauts. Six hours after taking off from the International Space Station, the ‘Starliner’ spacecraft landed at the ‘White Sands Missile Range’ in Mexico. The ‘Starliner’ flew to space in June after a long wait. However, due to a problem in the spacecraft’s ‘thruster’ and helium leak, it failed to bring the astronauts back to Earth.
