The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath has stated that the current situation where NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space for over 60 days will give lessons for future space missions like Gaganyaan. He told Hindustan Times that currently NASA is facing issues undocking Boeing’s Starliner from ISS. This is something that can happen with Gaganyaan, an upcoming crewed ISRO mission. India's ambitious human space mission, Gaganyaan, is taking a significant step forward with the first test flight of its human-rated rocket scheduled for December 2024.
He said, “We understand the challenges of such missions. When we plan Gaganyaan, we must be sensitive to such situations. I talked about a situation in which the Starliner couldn't have docked with the ISS and they were asked to come back immediately. Think of a situation like that.”
He added, “So such a situation can arise with Gaganyaan. The craft might have technical issues where we are asked to come back immediately. In our designs, we should take care of such contingency scenarios.”
Talking about the NASA mission where Williams, along with Butch Wilmore are still in space, waiting for their safe return to Earth from the past two months, he said, “'The stuck in space’ is a terminology that our and other media is speaking about. For us, it is a situation that needs to be decoded to find out whether it is safe to return."
According to him, they have “extended their stay”. He stated, “Sunita Williams has extended her stay on the International Space Station, where she has stayed for months together in the past. So, she's a veteran and knows how to stay on board ISS for a long time. So I don't find that she's stuck, but she's in a situation where, the period has been extended, which, causes some problem for the company.”
NASA has been struggling to bring back the astronauts safely, and has now started exploring the option of taking help from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. However, it has now come to light that the Boeing spacesuits are not compatible with SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. This could cause additional risks.
As per the official statement by NASA, “From a suits standpoint, they are really not interchangeable. You can't use a Boeing suit in a SpaceX vehicle or a SpaceX suit in a Boeing vehicle, so that would not be the plan. If the Starliner undocks and only the Dragon is available, they might have to return unsuited on the Dragon.”