Washington DC [US], Indian-American astronaut Sunita 'Suni' Williams-piloted spacecraft carrying fellow NASA astronaut Barry 'Butch' Williams lifted off from the International Space Station (ISS) in a test from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida on Wednesday. Was launched towards ISS). The flight which was hit by multiple delays.
"Let's go, Calypso," was the message Sunita radioed to mission control a few minutes before takeoff, referring to the name of the Starliner capsule. "Take us to space and back."
Starliner is scheduled to reach the ISS today at around 9.45 pm Indian Standard Time (about 12:15 am ET).Sunita's mother, Bonnie Pandya, told NBC News hours before liftoff that her daughter was in good spirits and "very happy to go."
NASA said in an update Thursday morning that both Sunita and Butch Wilmore are hard at work conducting preliminary tests on the Starliner spacecraft in orbit.
"The first six hours have been absolutely fascinating," Butch, who took manual control of the spacecraft, told NASA's mission center in Houston. NASA said that at 10:52 a.m. ET, Boeing's Starliner first launched ULA Atlas. The mission, flown on a V rocket and called Crew Flight Test, is intended to certify the spacecraft for routine space travel to and from the International Space Station. ,
Sunita Williams, 58, has created history by becoming the first woman astronaut to make the first flight of a crewed spacecraft.This flight also marks Sunita's third journey into space.
Starliner's success will determine whether the spacecraft will be certified for NASA to fly six-month astronaut missions to the ISS, which Elon Musk's SpaceX already does. Afterward, Wilmore and Williams will join the Expedition 71 crew of NASA astronauts Michael Barrett, Matt Dominic, Tracy C. Dyson, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos astronauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko.
"Two courageous NASA astronauts are on their way on this historic first test flight of a brand new spacecraft," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson after the Starliner launch.
Meanwhile, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk congratulated Boeing on the successful launch of its Starliner spacecraft into space."Congratulations on the successful launch!" SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said today via X. He also retweeted the US space agency's tweet which read, "Starliner to the stars!"
During a press conference at the National Science Center in New Delhi in 2013, Sunita told reporters that during her space missions she takes the Bhagavad Gita and samosas with her.
Both Sunny and Butch will remain in the ISS for about a week before leaving the ISS and re-entering Earth's atmosphere. NASA said it would make a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States on June 10. After the successful launch on Wednesday night, NASA chief Bill Nelson called it a "special moment" at a post-launch press conference."It's one of those great markers of history," he said.
"Today's launch is a milestone achievement for the future of space flight," Nelson wrote, posting on X, "Butch and Suni--safe travels through the stars. See you back home."
Both Boeing and SpaceX received funding from NASA's Commercial Crew Program in 2014 to carry astronauts to the ISS after the US space agency shut down its Space Shuttle program in 2011. Boeing received funding from the US to develop Starliner. More than US$4 billion was received from federal funds, while SpaceX received approximately US$2.6 billion.SpaceX company's Crew Dragon has conducted 12 crewed missions to the ISS since its first launch on May 30, 2020.
The last attempt to launch Boeing's Starliner spacecraft before Wednesday's launch was made less than four minutes before blastoff from Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, as ground system computers triggered an automatic abort command that aborted the launch. The sequence was called off. On May 6, NASA, Boeing, and ULA "scrubbed" the launch due to a "suspected oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket's Centaur second stage."
Sunita, from Needham, Massachusetts, earned a physics degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master's degree in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology.
According to NASA, their first spaceflight was Expedition 14/15 (December 2006 to June 2007), which launched on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-116 mission to reach the International Station.While onboard, Sunita set a world record for women with four spacewalks. He concluded his tour of duty by returning to Earth with the STS-117 flight of Shuttle Atlantis, landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 22, 2007.
Selected as an astronaut by NASA in June 1998, Sunita has spent a total of 322 days in space on two missions and has accumulated a cumulative EVA time of 50 hours and 40 minutes on seven spacewalks.
He contributed to the space station with Roscosmos and worked with the first expedition crew. Meanwhile, Barry Wilmore, 61, has spent 178 days in space and has a total of 25 hours and 36 minutes in four spacewalks.
"Let's go, Calypso," was the message Sunita radioed to mission control a few minutes before takeoff, referring to the name of the Starliner capsule. "Take us to space and back."
Starliner is scheduled to reach the ISS today at around 9.45 pm Indian Standard Time (about 12:15 am ET).Sunita's mother, Bonnie Pandya, told NBC News hours before liftoff that her daughter was in good spirits and "very happy to go."
NASA said in an update Thursday morning that both Sunita and Butch Wilmore are hard at work conducting preliminary tests on the Starliner spacecraft in orbit.
"The first six hours have been absolutely fascinating," Butch, who took manual control of the spacecraft, told NASA's mission center in Houston. NASA said that at 10:52 a.m. ET, Boeing's Starliner first launched ULA Atlas. The mission, flown on a V rocket and called Crew Flight Test, is intended to certify the spacecraft for routine space travel to and from the International Space Station. ,
Sunita Williams, 58, has created history by becoming the first woman astronaut to make the first flight of a crewed spacecraft.This flight also marks Sunita's third journey into space.
Starliner's success will determine whether the spacecraft will be certified for NASA to fly six-month astronaut missions to the ISS, which Elon Musk's SpaceX already does. Afterward, Wilmore and Williams will join the Expedition 71 crew of NASA astronauts Michael Barrett, Matt Dominic, Tracy C. Dyson, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos astronauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko.
"Two courageous NASA astronauts are on their way on this historic first test flight of a brand new spacecraft," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson after the Starliner launch.
Meanwhile, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk congratulated Boeing on the successful launch of its Starliner spacecraft into space."Congratulations on the successful launch!" SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said today via X. He also retweeted the US space agency's tweet which read, "Starliner to the stars!"
During a press conference at the National Science Center in New Delhi in 2013, Sunita told reporters that during her space missions she takes the Bhagavad Gita and samosas with her.
Both Sunny and Butch will remain in the ISS for about a week before leaving the ISS and re-entering Earth's atmosphere. NASA said it would make a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States on June 10. After the successful launch on Wednesday night, NASA chief Bill Nelson called it a "special moment" at a post-launch press conference."It's one of those great markers of history," he said.
"Today's launch is a milestone achievement for the future of space flight," Nelson wrote, posting on X, "Butch and Suni--safe travels through the stars. See you back home."
Both Boeing and SpaceX received funding from NASA's Commercial Crew Program in 2014 to carry astronauts to the ISS after the US space agency shut down its Space Shuttle program in 2011. Boeing received funding from the US to develop Starliner. More than US$4 billion was received from federal funds, while SpaceX received approximately US$2.6 billion.SpaceX company's Crew Dragon has conducted 12 crewed missions to the ISS since its first launch on May 30, 2020.
The last attempt to launch Boeing's Starliner spacecraft before Wednesday's launch was made less than four minutes before blastoff from Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, as ground system computers triggered an automatic abort command that aborted the launch. The sequence was called off. On May 6, NASA, Boeing, and ULA "scrubbed" the launch due to a "suspected oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket's Centaur second stage."
Sunita, from Needham, Massachusetts, earned a physics degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master's degree in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology.
According to NASA, their first spaceflight was Expedition 14/15 (December 2006 to June 2007), which launched on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-116 mission to reach the International Station.While onboard, Sunita set a world record for women with four spacewalks. He concluded his tour of duty by returning to Earth with the STS-117 flight of Shuttle Atlantis, landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 22, 2007.
Selected as an astronaut by NASA in June 1998, Sunita has spent a total of 322 days in space on two missions and has accumulated a cumulative EVA time of 50 hours and 40 minutes on seven spacewalks.
He contributed to the space station with Roscosmos and worked with the first expedition crew. Meanwhile, Barry Wilmore, 61, has spent 178 days in space and has a total of 25 hours and 36 minutes in four spacewalks.
