Sunita Williams at the International Space Station
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, stranded on the International Space Station, did a spacewalk on Thursday. She went out with the other astronaut Nick Hague and did some important repair work. Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita has been stuck on the International Space Station for seven months and she may return to Earth in late March or early April. This was Sunita’s first spacewalk after reaching the International Space Station in June 2024.
Station Commander Sunita Williams reached the International Space Station with Butch Wilmore in June last year. Both of them had to return after a week. Both had gone to test Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, but after it malfunctioned, both astronauts stayed at the space station and the black capsule was brought back. Since then both are stuck there.
Will return home by April
The capsule that was to be sent to bring back Sunita and Wilmore was also delayed. Because of this, both will be able to return home only at the end of March or beginning of April this year. This means that both astronauts will remain in the space station for about 10 months. A capsule named ‘Dragon’ has been sent to bring these two back. It was sent in September last year. NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov have also been sent with this capsule. Both of them are also currently in the space station. Dragon has space for four astronauts and could return with all four passengers in March or April.
Sunita’s eighth spacewalk
NASA halted astronaut spacewalks last summer. After this incident, for the first time a passenger has done a spacewalk. The spacewalk was aborted after water leaked into the airlock from the cooling loop of the astronaut’s suit. NASA said the problem has been fixed. This was the eighth spacewalk for Williams. She has also lived on the space station before and has done seven spacewalks. (input-ap)
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