Indian American NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are stuck in space and they have been forced to take shelter in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as a Russian satellite broke into pieces and the debris came close to International Space Station, as reported by Reuters.
As a standard precautionary measure, Mission Control instructed all crew members to seek shelter in their respective spacecraft. Therefore , Williams and Wilmore presumably took refuge in the Starliner capsule.
As per the report, a defunct Russian Earth Observation satellite, RESURS-P1, broke into 100 pieces. This forced the astronauts to take shelter in their spacecraft for an hour. This event took place at around 9.30 pm IST. NASA’s space station office revealed that it occurred in an orbit near the space station, prompting US astronauts on board to take shelter in their spacecraft.
The astronaut duo is currently held back in space as NASA manages “small helium system leaks and thruster performance.” Although initially scheduled for an 8-day mission, Williams and Wilmore’s stay has been prolonged for over three weeks due to technical issues. Meanwhile, NASA has firmly maintained the spacecraft can safely return to Earth with the astronauts if needed.
