NASA Cites Kalpana Chawla's Death in Decision to Delay Sunita Williams' Return

New Delhi: The death of Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla and six others on February 1, 2003, when the space shuttle Columbia broke up and burned during re-entry, influenced NASA's decision to keep another Indian-American astronaut, Sunita Williams, in space for eight months. Before this, the space shuttle Challenger had exploded on January 28, 1986, killing all its crew. In total, 14 astronauts have died in these accidents.

These two accidents "very much affected the decision" to bring the Boeing Starliner back without astronauts, said NASA chief Bill Nelson, who is also an astronaut and has investigated these accidents. He said NASA made "obvious mistakes."

Kalpana Chawla died over southern US skies when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry, 16 minutes before the scheduled landing. She attended Tagore School in Haryana's Karnal in 1976 and graduated with a BSc in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982. She joined NASA as an astronaut in 1994 after further education in the US.

Nelson said that at that time, NASA's culture did not encourage junior flight engineers to speak up about risks. "Today, folks are encouraged to speak their minds," he added.

So, NASA decided to bring home astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore in February 2025 in the SpaceX Crew Dragon instead of now, after engineers expressed concerns about flying the spacecraft in its current condition.

NASA officials said the decision to replace the return spacecraft was "unanimous."

"Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and bring Boeing's Starliner home without crew is the result of our commitment to safety - our core value and our North Star," said Nelson.

Space engineers found helium leaks and issues with the spacecraft's small rockets on June 6, as Starliner approached the ISS.

NASA stated that the "uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence does not meet the agency's safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight."

NASA announced it would bring Boeing's Starliner home without the two astronauts by September 6. It will take six hours to return to Earth. The spacecraft has had two uncrewed missions before this, and Boeing hopes it will return safely.