Produced by: Tarun Mishra
In the past few months, the ISS has experienced several mishaps, the latest involving a Russian satellite exploding in space, posing a threat to the station. Astronauts took cover in escape pods in case the debris collided with the ISS.
On June 26, a defunct Russian satellite, RESURS-P1, broke up into over 100 pieces of debris in low Earth orbit, prompting immediate action by the ISS crew. NASA confirmed the incident in a brief update, stating that the crew moved to their designated safe areas for about an hour before being cleared to resume normal operations.
Credit: NASA
Hours after Sunita Williams reached ISS in early June, scientists detected a multi-drug resistant bacteria known as Enterobacter bugandensis on the ISS. This bacterium, which infects the human respiratory system and is commonly referred to as a "superbug." It has evolved to become more potent in the closed environment of the space station.
According to a NASA statement: “In a new scientific paper funded by an Ames Space Biology grant, Principal Investigator Dr. Kasthuri Venkateswaran of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory studied strains of Enterobacter bugandensis isolated from the International Space Station (ISS). Thirteen strains of E. bugandensis, a bacterium notorious for being multi-drug resistant, were isolated from the ISS.”
Just days after the discovery of Superbug, two U.S. astronauts abandoned their plans to exit the International Space Station for maintenance due to a spacesuit malfunction. NASA officials called off the spacewalk because of a water leak in the cooling unit of one of the astronauts' suits. The leak, which affected the suit worn by NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, occurred just after the suits were transferred to battery power, moments before they were to exit the space station.
The cooling units in the spacesuits are designed to maintain a comfortable temperature for the astronauts during their work. Dyson and her crewmate, Mike Barratt, were scheduled to remove a faulty electronics box from a communications antenna on the station’s exterior.
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleague, astronaut Butch Wilmore, are currently stuck at the International Space Station (ISS). According to NASA, the return of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft has been postponed due to multiple technical issues. NASA has decided to conduct additional reviews of the spacecraft's technical problems before permitting its return to ensure the astronauts' safety.
Originally scheduled to return on June 13, their departure has been postponed several times, and the agency has not provided a new return date. After multiple delays, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore departed for the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5.