Sunita Williams is back on the ISS for her third trip. During her previous two visits, she carried an idol of Lord Ganesh and the Bhagavad Gita to space.
The Boeing Starliner safely docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday carrying Indian astronaut Sunita Williams and crew member Butch Wilmore. The 59-year-old astronaut is the first woman to pilot and test the new manned spacecraft on its maiden mission.
Sunita Williams is back on the ISS for her third trip. On her two previous visits, she brought a statue of Lord Ganesha and the Bhagavad Gita into space. She celebrated her arrival at the space station with a little dance and was also seen hugging the seven other astronauts aboard the ISS. She and crew member Wilmore were greeted by the ringing of bells, a time-honored tradition at the ISS.
Williams, on her third spaceflight, made history by becoming the first crew member to fly aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on a 25-hour flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Williams is the flight test pilot, while Wilmore, 61, is the mission’s commander.
Although the spacecraft is normally autonomous, the crew used hand controls to orient and steer the spacecraft during the roughly two-hour free-flight demonstration.
Just before launch, Commander Wilmore expressed his gratitude to everyone who worked to make the mission possible.
Alluding to past difficulties, he said: “When things got tough, and they often were, Starliner pilot Suni Williams called out ‘Go Calypso (name of capsule)’. Take us to space and come back,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The mission is a key undertaking for manufacturer Boeing, which is under pressure following a series of safety accidents with its aircraft. Starliner has also faced a number of technical problems, delaying its planned crewed debut by nearly a decade.