NRI Astronaut “Sunita Williams” Embarks on Her Third Space Mission
Los Angeles/Jun 06, 2024
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh
NASA astronaut NRI Sunita Williams, 58, launched aboard the Boeing Starliner on Wednesday morning. Known for carrying cultural items to space, she was part of the first crewed mission of the Starliner capsule to the International Space Station, alongside astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore.
Williams, a veteran of two previous space missions, has shared that she brings essential cultural items, including the sacred texts Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, and samosas. During a 2013 news conference at the National Science Centre in Delhi, she expressed her appreciation for her Indian heritage. “Ganesh has always been in my house. Everywhere I’ve lived, I’ve had Ganesh, and so he had to come with me to space, of course. And Indian food — you can never get enough of Indian food … so I had to make sure I had some samosas in space with me. Other types of Indian food we definitely had up there as well,” she said.
Williams, whose father is Indian and mother is of Slovenian descent, has been vocal about the significance of her heritage. During Expedition 32/33 in 2012, she sent out a Diwali greeting from space. Selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998, Williams has spent a total of 322 days in space and conducted seven spacewalks across her two extended missions. She once held the record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut, which has since been surpassed by Peggy Whitson.
This recent launch marked Williams as the first woman to test an orbital spacecraft. The historic test flight — the third attempt after repeated delays — aims to establish regular flights between Boeing’s Starliner capsule and NASA. Bonnie Pandya, Williams’ mother, shared with NBC News that her daughter was in good spirits and thrilled about the mission.
Minutes before liftoff, Williams sent a message to mission control: “Let’s go, Calypso. Take us to space and back,” referring to the Starliner capsule's name.
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