The US space agency NASA has acknowledged that Sunita Williams being stranded in space was dangerous. NASA also categorised this mission as a Type A accident. What is a Type A accident in space? A Type A accident is the most severe category. This is the same category used for the Challenger and Columbia shuttle accidents. It is known that India’s astronaut Kalpana Chawla died in the Columbia shuttle accident. In the 311-page report released on February 19, 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote that Sunita Williams’ mission had serious flaws. He strongly criticised the agency and Boeing for overlooking the shortcomings. Sunita Williams arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024 for an 8-day mission, but due to technical reasons, her return took more than 9 months. In January, Sunita Williams retired after 27 years NASA astronaut Sunita Williams had retired after 27 years with effect from December 27, 2025. However, NASA announced it on January 20. Sunita joined NASA in 1998, participated in 3 missions, and spent 608 days in space. She first went into space on December 9, 2006. Sunita performed 9 spacewalks in space. During this time, she walked in space for 62 hours and 6 minutes. This is the most by any female astronaut. Sunita said, ‘Looking at Earth from space, one feels that we are all one.’
Sunita visited India last month. She also participated in the ‘Eyes on the Stars, Feet on the Ground’ seminar at the American Center in Delhi. She also said that this work should be done democratically, with everyone’s benefit, cooperation, and transparency, so that no single country dominates and all of humanity benefits from it. Coming to India is like coming home: Coming to India feels like a homecoming to her, as her father was from Jhulasan village in Mehsana district, Gujarat. Meanwhile, when asked by NDTV about going to the moon, she jokingly said, ‘I want to go to the moon, but my husband won’t allow me. It’s time to return home and hand over responsibilities. The next generation must make their place in space exploration.’ On days spent in space: When asked if space travel changed her perspective on life, she said – Yes, absolutely. When you see Earth from space, you realize that we are all one and we should work more closely together. On space debris: Over the last decade, this has become a major challenge and new technology is needed to manage it. Recalled space mission: She spoke about her time spent on the International Space Station (ISS) and the challenging period when an 8-day mission extended to over nine months due to technical issues. During this, visuals of celebrating festivals with the multi-cultural crew on the ISS were also shown. What happened with Kalpana Chawla? Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla flew for the first time to space on November 19, 1997. In her first space trip, she spent 372 hours in space. After this, he got a chance to go to space for the second time on 16 January 2003. On February 1, 2003, Kalpana Chawla was supposed to return to a safe earth, but her mission failed. During the takeoff of Chawla’s spacecraft, Columbia Shuttle STS-107, pieces of insulating foam from the fuel tank of the vehicle collided with the left wing of the shuttle. Because of this, as soon as Kalpana Chawla’s spacecraft reached the Earth’s atmosphere, there was a big explosion due to the heat of the strong friction of the air and all 7 astronauts died.
