NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, scheduled to return from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing's Starliner, are facing significant risks due to potential complications with the spacecraft's re-entry process. Concerns have been raised about the safety of their return journey, which was initially planned for a week after the launch on June 5, 2024. Initially scheduled to return in 8 days, it has been delayed by over 2 months now due to technical issues with the Starliner spacecraft.

Key issues involve the possibility of the spacecraft failing to properly re-enter Earth's atmosphere. If the re-entry angle is too steep, the Starliner could burn up due to a malfunction in its heat shield. On the other hand, if the spacecraft is unable to re-enter at all, the astronauts could be left orbiting the Earth indefinitely, with only 96 hours of oxygen supply remaining.

NASA is now grappling with the difficult decision of whether to proceed with the return using the potentially faulty Starliner or to rely on SpaceX's Crew Dragon for a rescue mission. If SpaceX is called upon, Boeing's inaugural human spaceflight would inadvertently turn into an unscheduled rescue operation, further complicating the situation.

Former U.S. military space systems commander Rudy Ridolfi has highlighted three critical risks associated with the Starliner’s re-entry: poor alignment of the spacecraft's service module, insufficient oxygen supply in case of being stranded, and the potential for vaporization during re-entry due to heat shield failure.

Adding to the urgency, reports indicate that astronaut Sunita Williams may be experiencing health issues, including vision problems, which could further complicate NASA’s decision-making process. As NASA assesses these risks, the situation underscores the high stakes involved in human spaceflight and the critical need for reliable spacecraft systems.

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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).