Houston : Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams flew to space for the third time on Wednesday along with a colleague, scripting history as the first members aboard Boeing's Star liner spacecraft on a 25-hour flight to the International Space Station. Boeing's Crew Flight Test mission carrying Williams and Butch Wilmore lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida after multiple delays.
Williams, 58, is the pilot for the flight test while Wilmore, 61, is the commander of the mission. The launch marks the beginning of the NASA-Boeing Star liner Crew Flight Test (CFT). "This crew flight test represents the beginning of a new era of space exploration as we watch astronauts Wilmore and Williams put Boeing's Star liner through its paces on the way to the International Space Station," said Boeing Defense, Space & Security President and CEO Ted Colbert.
"This is a great start, We look forward to getting the astronauts safely to the space station and back home. Wilmore and Williams are also the first to be launched on an Atlas V rocket and are currently experiencing microgravity on their way to the space station. They will conduct a series of flight test objectives, including manually flying Star liner.
Along with the two crew members, Star liner is carrying about 760 pounds (345 kilograms) of cargo. Once docked to the ISS, Wilmore and Williams will spend about week on station before return to Earth. Following a successful CFT, Boeing and NASA will continue working to certify Star liner for long-duration operational missions to the ISS.
Williams also made history as the first woman to embark on such a mission. And it won't be her first entry in the history books. In 2012, during a prior trip to the International Space Station, Williams became the first person to finish a triathlon in space, during which she simulated swimming using a weight-lifting machine and ran on a treadmill while strapped in by a harness so she wouldn't float away.
Williams received her commission as an Ensign in the United States Navy from the United States Naval Academy in May 1987. Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and is a veteran of two space missions, Expeditions 14/15 in 2006 and 32/33 and 2012.