Indications are that it may take months for Indian-origin Sunita Williams and fellow traveler Eugene Butch Wilmore to reach Earth. This comes after NASA announced that it will take more time to fix the probe’s malfunction.
The crisis was caused by a helium gas leak from the spacecraft when the Boeing Starliner approached the International Space Station. The inoperability of some machine parts made the task difficult. NASA will give permission for the return journey only after re-examining the technical problems of the spacecraft considering the safety of the passengers. Starliner returned to space on June 5 after several postponements. The Starliner launch is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.
The experiment with NASA is about how the Starliner could be used for commercial purposes. NASA called this mission Crew Flight Test. The Boeing Company is an American-headquartered multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells aircraft, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. With this mission, Sunita became the first woman to fly a spacecraft on a test mission into space.
This is the third space flight of Sunita Williams of Indian origin. On December 9, 2006, Sunita Williams made her first spacewalk aboard the Discovery spacecraft. Then in 2012, they made a second trip. According to NASA, they have spent 322 days in space. Sunita also holds the record of being the first woman astronaut to spend 50 hours and 40 minutes on seven spacewalks. Sunita was born in Julasan in Mehsana district of Gujarat and later migrated to America.
