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Journalism of Courage
Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space— at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay. But now it seems her return to earth will be a bit later than planned.
The problem is that a hail storm that damaged the fuel tank of the space shuttle Atlantis has thrown NASA’s flight schedule for the year, haywire. Her ticket home, space shuttle Endeavour, may get off the ground several weeks later than its originally scheduled June 28 launch.
“We’re doing things we can as best we can to make her happy,” said Kirk Shireman, NASA’s deputy manager of the space station programme. “Aside from that, there’s not a whole lot that one can do.”
During her longer stay in space, Williams is expected to break the US record for continuous time in space. Her current crew mate, Michael Lopez-Alegria, will set that record when he returns to Earth on April 20 in a Russian Soyuz vehicle with 214 days in space.
