According to media reports, Boeing’s Starliner mission to take Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams to the International Space Station has been postponed due to a technical glitch. No new date has been announced for the launch.
Let us tell you that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was to depart at 10:34 pm local time on Monday (8:04 am on Tuesday international time). The Starliner was going to take Williams’ Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station.
Williams was very excited about the mission. According to media reports, she would make history as the first woman to fly on the first crewed mission of a new spacecraft. This would have been Williams’ third space journey.
Sunita Williams’ Successes As An Astronaut
NASA selected Sunita Williams as an astronaut in 1988. She has experience with two space missions. She served as the flight engineer of Expedition 32 and the commander of Expedition 33.
First Space Travel
Williams flew with the STS-116 crew on December 9, 2006, during Expedition 14/15, and arrived at the International Space Center on December 11, 2006.
This Record Was Made In The First Space Journey
In her first space journey, she created a world record for women by walking in space four times for 29 hours and 17 minutes. Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke this record in 2008 by walking in space five times.
Second Space Travel
In Expedition 32/33, Williams flew to space on July 14, 2012, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, along with Russian Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide.
At that time, Williams spent four months doing research and exploration while revolving around the laboratory. She reached Kazakhstan on November 18, 2012, after spending 127 days in space. Williams and Hoshide conducted three spacewalks during their mission and repaired an ammonia leak from the station’s radiator.
Once Again, Williams Made A Record
With a spacewalk of 50 hours and 40 minutes, Williams again held the world record for the longest spacewalk by a female astronaut.
Williams Has Spent A Total Of 322 Days In Space
Williams was born in Euclid, Ohio, to Indian-American neuroanatomist Deepak Pandya and Slovenian-American Ursuline Bonnie Pandya. She received a physics degree from the US Naval Academy and a Master of Science in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology.
