Sunita Williams to Embark on Third Space Mission with NASA’s Starliner on Inaugural Crewed Flight Test
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is set for her third space mission, joining US astronaut Butch Wilmore on NASA’s Boeing crew flight test to the International Space Station (ISS) this Saturday. They will launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, around 10 pm IST.
Upon reaching the ISS, Williams and Wilmore will dock and remain there for about a week, conducting various tests to validate the Starliner’s functionality. Their mission will conclude with a parachute-assisted landing in the western US. This mission, part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, marks the Starliner’s inaugural crewed voyage, aiming to evaluate its capabilities from launch to docking and its return to Earth. A successful test flight will advance the final certification stages for the Starliner and its systems for future crewed missions to the space station.
RELATED: SpaceX Readies for Launch: 20 More Starlink Satellites Set for Deployment
Selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998, Sunita Williams has a distinguished career with two previous space missions: Expeditions 14/15 and 32/33. Her first mission lasted from December 9, 2006, to June 22, 2007, where she served as a flight engineer for Expedition 14 and later transitioned to the Expedition 15 crew, concluding her mission with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, with the STS-117 crew.
The US space agency has faced multiple delays for Boeing’s inaugural crewed flight of the Starliner capsule, largely to allow engineers to address a helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. In 2019, a software malfunction during an initial unmanned test flight caused the capsule to miss its intended trajectory and fail to reach the ISS. NASA attributed the failure to Boeing’s insufficient safety checks.
RELATED: SpaceX Launches First Operational Spy Satellites for US Intelligence Network
In 2021, blocked valves delayed another launch attempt. However, in May 2022, the vessel successfully docked with the ISS during an unmanned mission. Further issues, including subpar parachutes and flammable cabin tape, have led to additional delays in the crewed test flight, which is critical for the Starliner’s certification for regular NASA missions to the ISS.