Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will be brought back to Earth in February next year. SpaceX’s Dragon Crew capsule will be sent to bring them. The same spacecraft that gave the common man the opportunity to do a spacewalk in space 737 kilometers above the Earth. The name of the mission that brought Sunita is Crew-9. Its launch will take place on 24 September 2024. Earlier four astronauts were going in it. Now only two will go. So that we can bring Sunita and Butch while returning. The two detained astronauts have been assigned to the next mission. In the earlier plan, the commander of this mission was Jenna Cardman.
The plane was carrying pilot Nick Hague, mission specialist Stephanie Wilson, and Russian cosmonaut mission specialist Alexander Gorbunov. But now only two male astronauts i.e. Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov and pilot Nick Hague will go in it. NASA has chosen SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule to bring Sunita. This capsule has been launched 47 times since its creation. The Dragon capsule has visited the International Space Station 42 times. Re-flights have taken place 26 times. This capsule has seating arrangements for seven astronauts at a time.
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It is the world’s first private spacecraft, which has been continuously carrying astronauts and cargo to the space station. The weight of the empty capsule is 7700 kg. It has a maximum take-off weight capacity of 12,500 kg when launched with cargo and astronauts. It can deliver up to 6000 kg of weight into orbit. It can transport or bring back a mass of 3307 kg to the space station. It usually seats 2 to 4 astronauts. Seating for seven astronauts can be arranged in case of emergency evacuation. If it flies into low Earth orbit on its own, it can stay in space for up to 10 days. But it can stay in space for 210 days if it is connected to the space station. SpaceX has made many variants of it.
So far 12 Dagran capsules have been made. 6 crew, 3 cargo, and 3 prototypes. 15 feet is the height of the Dragon Crew Capsule. But including the propulsion system below, its height becomes 26.7 feet. The inside diameter of the capsule is 13 feet and the width is 12 feet. A total of 8 Dragon capsules are currently operational. Four of these are crew capsules, i.e. carrying astronauts to the space station and back. Three cargo capsules i.e. for luggage. A prototype. Three capsules have been retired, one of which was crewed and two of which were prototypes. On 2 March 2019, the first unmanned flight of this capsule took place. The first manned flight was on 20 May 2020. The first cargo flight was on 6 December 2020. It is usually launched from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. In this, 2563 kg of fuel is put to go to the space station and back.
