Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams set for third space mission

About the mission

The mission, a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, is the first crewed flight for the Starliner spacecraft. The mission will test the end-to-end capabilities of the spacecraft’s system, including launch, docking and return to Earth in the western United States. Following a successful crewed flight test, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and systems for crewed missions to the space station.

Williams’ earlier missions

Sunita Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and is a veteran of two space missions — Expeditions 14/15 and 32/33.

Expedition 14/15 lasted from December 9, 2006 till June 22, 2007. As a member of the Expedition 14 crew, Williams served as the flight engineer. She concluded her tour of duty as a member of the Expedition 15 crew returning to Earth with the STS-117 crew to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

While on board, Williams established a world record for female astronauts with four spacewalks, totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes. Her record was later broken by Astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2008 with a total of five spacewalks.

Williams was also part of a long-duration mission as flight engineer for Expedition 32 and International Space Station commander for Expedition 33.

She launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, along with Russian Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on July 14, 2012. Williams spent four months conducting research and exploration aboard the orbiting laboratory. She landed in Kazakhstan on November 18, 2012, after spending 127 days in space. During their expedition, Williams and Hoshide performed three spacewalks to replace a component that relays power from the space station’s solar arrays to its systems, and repair an ammonia leak on a station radiator.

Williams has spent a total of 322 days in space over the course of her two missions.

With 50 hours and 40 minutes, Williams once again held the record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut, which was later broken by Whitson who did 10 spacewalks.