Sunita Williams to Conclude Her Extended ISS Mission Today

Synopsis

Sunita Williams, an astronaut of Indian descent, is returning from an extended mission aboard the ISS. The spacecraft Dragon will undock and splash down in Florida, concluding a journey delayed for technical reasons. Williams is recognized for her impactful contributions to space exploration.

Key Takeaways

Sunita Williams is returning to Earth after a long ISS mission.
Her return was delayed for technical reasons.
The Dragon spacecraft will splash down in Florida.
The mission is part of NASA’s collaboration with SpaceX.
Williams is the second notable astronaut of Indian descent.

Washington, March 18 (NationPress) Indian-descent American astronaut Sunita Williams is set to return to Earth on Tuesday evening, marking the conclusion of an unusually lengthy stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

A spacecraft carrying Williams along with three other astronauts will undock from the ISS shortly, with plans to splash down off the coast of Florida at 5:57 p.m. US Eastern (approximately 3 a.m. Wednesday in India), as reported by NASA.

The crew aboard the Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the ISS and secure the hatch at 11:15 p.m. US Eastern (8:45 a.m. Tuesday in India).

NASA will be live-streaming the Dragon’s return, as part of its collaboration with SpaceX, under the mission named NASA’s SpaceX Crew 9.

For Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, this marks the beginning of a journey that was initially planned for 10 months ago, at the end of their eight-day mission to the space station.

Their return was postponed due to technical issues, as indicated by NASA.

Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, has suggested that the two astronauts could have returned sooner with his assistance.

“They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good,” Musk stated in an interview alongside President Donald Trump on Fox News recently.

Williams, who celebrated her 60th birthday in September, is the second India-descent American astronaut of notable recognition, having followed Kalpana Chawla. Just a few years senior to Williams, Chawla tragically lost her life in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.

Sunita Lyn Williams, born in 1965 to a father from Gujarat, Deepak Pandya, and a mother from Slovenia, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya (née Zalokar), made her inaugural journey to the ISS in 2006 aboard the space shuttle Discovery.