SpaceX Crew-10 lifted off at 4:30 AM to bring astronauts Sunita Williams and Will Pichmore back from the International Space Station after their extended 8-month mission.
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00:00My colleague Shibu Kumar Tripathi, who is the Senior Assistant Editor, Science, is now
00:04live with me from the National Capital.
00:07Shibu, the first question, how easy or difficult will it be for the crew 10 to bring back Sunita
00:13and Will Pichmore?
00:14Good morning, everyone.
00:15The mission is definitely very, very difficult.
00:16Space travel is always difficult.
00:17It's never easy, to say the least.
00:18The crew 10 this morning launched around 4.30 a.m.
00:19They now have about 26 hours of flight ahead of them.
00:20They go around the planet and then rendezvous with the International Space Station tomorrow
00:34morning, sometime around 9, 9.30.
00:36After that, they enter the space station, a handover process will take over.
00:41We have to know that Sunita Williams was the commander of the space station till now.
00:45She recently gave the command to the Russian cosmonaut.
00:48And the new team that will arrive at the space station will take command.
00:53Post that, there's a long, close to about four to five days of handover period during
00:57which all the science experiments, all the data, all the research that has been done
01:02on space station will be transferred to the new crew.
01:05The new crew, which has got all their cargo payload, will be transferred into the space
01:08station.
01:09And then a final date will be announced as to when the commander, when a crew line, which
01:15also includes Sunita Williams and astronaut Bush Willmore, will begin their return journey.
01:20This return journey is again also very, very difficult.
01:23The re-entry is an extremely difficult process, which will take a few hours before they splash
01:28down in the coast of Florida.
01:30So it's a long process.
01:31It will take about a week before this entire mission is complete.
01:35We have just begun the entire process of relieving the current crew line space station members.
01:41Right.
01:42Shibu, you know, also we had heard talks earlier that Elon Musk's own SpaceX could actually
01:49be roped in for the rescue mission.
01:51We are seeing that happening now.
01:53Now has this put SpaceX in the space where it has become a major player now?
01:59It already was.
02:00But with this rescue mission, and if this happens without any kind of glitch, then do
02:04you believe SpaceX has made a space for itself?
02:07Elon Musk's SpaceX has definitely made a name for itself.
02:12We need to see that SpaceX has been the biggest contractor for NASA at the moment.
02:18Before SpaceX, NASA used to do space shuttle missions, but that ended in about 2011, forcing
02:24NASA to go to Russia.
02:26Russia used to launch American astronauts.
02:28That's when Elon Musk came in, stepped in with his Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft.
02:34For the last four to five, six years, he has been consistently sending crew, cargo, private
02:40missions to space.
02:41At the moment, Elon Musk is one of the biggest players in the space game.
02:46Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is slowly picking pace.
02:50We also need to see that both Elon Musk and Boeing, both SpaceX and Boeing got the contract
02:56to make reusable, got the contract to make a spacecraft to send and bring back astronauts
03:01together.
03:02However, Elon Musk has been leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to developing the entire
03:08system.
03:09The Starliner spacecraft in which Saruta Williams and Butch Willmore basically traveled to the
03:13space station in June last year was on its maiden flight.
03:17This was a certification flight to certify that the spacecraft was fit to send and bring
03:21back astronauts to and from the space station.
03:24However, what we saw in the hours after the launch was that there were several technical
03:28mishaps.
03:29This has now placed Elon Musk as the prime player in the entire game, especially with
03:34the inroads into the White House with President Donald Trump.
03:39He is at the prime spot in the space exploration, not just in the US, but I think across the
03:45world at the moment.
03:46Shubham, NASA has been at the forefront when we speak about space missions, but the past
03:52nine months have been very, very difficult for NASA.
03:55Astronauts are definitely being asked about what went wrong and what is the future of
04:00these kind of space missions?
04:02Definitely, when Starliner launched, astronauts Saruta Williams and Butch Willmore were the
04:07first astronauts to basically fly this spacecraft.
04:10They knew that this entire mission comes with uncertainty.
04:14They knew that there could be issues with the Starliner and it's expected that these
04:19things are calibrated into the planning and processing of the entire mission.
04:23However, what we saw was several of the thrusters, basically the mini engines that are used to
04:28orient the spacecraft to move them forward and backwards, developed several snags.
04:33There were helium leaks that were seen on camera coming out from the Starliner spacecraft.
04:40Starliner, knowing at the moment, has been suffering to fix these issues.
04:45And that's where SpaceX has come in.
04:47They have made a spot for themselves.
04:49So definitely these are difficult missions.
04:52These take time. At the moment, Boeing has not given any clarity as to what issues have
04:58they fixed so far. When can we expect the next mission to take place?
05:03In the meantime, Elon Musk's SpaceX is moving leaps and bounds ahead.
05:09Shibu, one of the last questions I would like to ask you is that once back on Earth, are
05:13there major health issues that both the astronauts will be facing?
05:16Because that has been a big concern.
05:17We have seen those photographs coming out and they do not look healthy.
05:21So the big question a lot of people now have in mind, will there be health issues once
05:25both the astronauts are back on Earth?
05:28See, we have to also understand that this was an extended mission.
05:32Both the astronauts had gone on the space station just for an eight day mission.
05:37This is now extended for about eight to nine months.
05:40During a recent press conference, both the astronauts said that they are healthy.
05:43NASA has a specific diet, extreme regulations, exercises that are designed just for the
05:50astronauts living on the space station.
05:52They have special gym equipments that they go through.
05:54They have to do exercises on a daily basis.
05:56However, they have been in space for seven to eight months without feeling any weight.
06:00They have zero gravity.
06:02So once they enter Earth, the first thing that they see is the extreme pressure and
06:07the struggles of gravity that they'll have to face.
06:10Both the astronauts have said that this will be a day by day recovery process.
06:14So we also have to see once they splash down in coastal Florida, SpaceX and NASA will put
06:19them in a quarantine for about a week.
06:22After that, they'll come out.
06:23They'll be going through several health checkups.
06:26We have to also see that a major effect of space travel is on the bone density.
06:32Secondly, your cardiovascular system also suffers the impact of long duration space
06:37travel. NASA, SpaceX and several space agencies across the world, they are doing
06:41research on how long duration space travel affects your body.
06:45So definitely it will be a day by day process to recover and it will take them several
06:50weeks to months to fully gain their pace and feel of the gravity once they land on the
06:55planet. In a justful manner, even astronauts will say that even lifting a pencil would
07:02be like doing a workout once they land on the planet.
07:05So, yes, there are several health concerns, but they are all taken care of.
07:09NASA is very, very particular about this.
07:11They're very particular when it comes to astronaut health.
07:13So we'll see how long they take to recover because the mission was unplanned.
07:19The mission was it came on the go.
07:21So it will take some time for them to recover.
07:25Thank you, Sibu, for giving us all those details and also putting things in perspective.
07:29The big question everyone at the moment is very closely looking at, will the mission be
07:33successful? And second, what will happen with the health of the astronauts once they're
07:37back on Earth?