Sunita Williams' 3rd Space Mission Aborted Hours Before Lift Off
Sunita Williams' third space mission has been postponed after the launch of the Boeing Starliner was called off due to a technical glitch.
Just hours before the launch of the Boeing Starliner, slated to take astronaut Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams to her third space mission, was aborted today due to a technical glitch. So far, no new date has been announced for the launch.
Williams was set to embark on her new space mission on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 8.04 am in a brand-new Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
However, the launch of the Atlas V rocket was called off just 90 minutes before the lift-off.
The two-member NASA crew who were supposed to go on this mission--astronauts Barry Wilmore (61) and Sunita Williams (58)-- were strapped into their seats aboard the Starliner spacecraft, an hour before launch activities stood suspended.
Following the incident, US space agency NASA announced that the mission was called off due to an issue with a valve in the rocket's secomd stage.
This would have been the third space travel for Williams, who has already spent 322 days in space, holding a record for the maximum hours of spacewalk by any woman, before being overtaken by Peggy Whitson.
Had the mission not been postponed due to the glitch, the Indian-origin astronaut would have have made history as the first woman to fly on a maiden crewed mission of a new space shuttle by now.
Who is Sunita Williams?
Starliner pilot Sunita Williams is a retired US Navy Captain who joined NASA in 1998. Williams set out on her first space mission on December 9, 2006, which lasted till June 22, 2007.
On her maiden space voyage, she established a world record for women by going on four spacewalks which summed up to arounf 29 hours and 17 minutes. The veteran of two spaceflights has spent around 322 days in space and has even ran the first space marathon.
Although no official announcement has been made yet, the next available launch window for the mission is Tuesday night, India Today reported.
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