Williams (59) along with fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore have been stuck at the International Space Station (ISS) due to spacecraft failures for over nine months on a mission which was planned for just over a week
By her own admission, she has been “struggling to remember what it feels like to walk and lie down.” Having been stranded in zero gravity environment on board the International Space Station (ISS) along with a fellow astronaut for over nine months, on a mission which was originally planned to last just over a week, 59-year-old Indian origin NASA astronaut Sunita (Suni) Williams has been putting up a brave front.
Finally, the space ordeal of the astronaut duo may be over as NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission successfully launched on Friday from the launch complex at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to bring the stuck astronauts back to earth, expectedly by March 19.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, who will join five crew members other than Williams and Butch Wilmore. While Williams and Wilmore along with two other fellow astronauts will return shortly, the others will continue for a long duration stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Congratulating the NASA and SpaceX teams on the 10th crew rotation mission under the commercial crew partnership, NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro said “Through these missions, we are laying the foundation for future exploration, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Our international crew will contribute to innovative science research and technology development, delivering benefits to all humanity.”
Prolonged exposure to zero gravity in space leads to muscle weakness and loss of bone mass and at 59 years old Sunita Williams’ body would have taken a heavy beating these past nine months. Despite this she and her stuck fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore have been all smiles as and when their live videos have been made public by NASA.
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On a call video call with students at her alma mater Needham High School located in Massachusetts in the first week of February, Williams had however made comments which were interpreted as concerning when she had said, “I’ve been up here long enough right now I’ve been trying to remember what it’s like to walk.”
“I haven’t walked. I haven’t sat down. I haven’t laid down. You don’t have to. You can just close your eyes and float where you are right here,” Williams was quoted as saying of her zero gravity environs.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stuck at the ISS since their Boeing Starliner capsule suffered several leaks and mechanical issues during their weeklong mission last June. The stranded pair’s return home was further delayed in September when NASA ordered the Starliner to fly back empty after deeming the capsule too dangerous for a crewed return flight.
The same month, that is September, SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule to rescue the pair, and it docked at the space station, but NASA opted to stall its return.
Williams and Wilmore will head back to Earth on one of the docketed SpaceX capsules with fellow American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who had flown up on the rescue mission on SpaceX with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.
Williams and Wilmore helped keep the station running – fixing a broken toilet, watering plants and conducting experiments – and even went out on a spacewalk together. With nine spacewalks, Williams has set a record for women: the most time spent spacewalking over a career.
