Sunita Williams flew to space for the third time

Houston, June 05 (HS). Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams left for space for the third time on Wednesday with another colleague. Both of them made history by becoming the first members to go to the International Space Station in Boeing Company’s Starliner spacecraft.
Boeing’s Crew Flight Test mission carrying Williams and Butch Wilmore took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida after multiple delays. Williams also made history as the first woman to fly on such a mission.
Williams became the first person to complete a triathlon in space during a 2012 visit to the International Space Station. Williams joined the U.S. Navy in May 1987 after training at the U.S. Naval Academy. Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and served on two space missions – Expedition 14-15 in 2006 and Expedition 32-33 in 2012. She served as a flight engineer on Expedition 32 and then as commander of Expedition 33. Boeing’s Crew Flight Test mission was delayed for several years because of setbacks in spacecraft development.
Williams and Wilmore’s journey is expected to take about 25 hours. The spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Thursday. They will spend more than a week aboard the orbiting laboratory and then reboard the Starliner spacecraft for a return landing in a remote desert in the western US on June 14.
Hindustan News/Ajit Tiwari/Akash