Why Is Sunita Williams Stuck In Outer Space
(Photo: Sunita Williams, courtesy NASA)
September 14, 2024
On June 6 this year, Sunita Williams and fellow American astronaut Barry (Butch) Wilmore arrived at the International Space Station for a roughly eight-day mission. Now, due to technical problems with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, they are stuck at the space station. If all goes well, they are expected to return to earth by a Dragon rocket, operated by SpaceX, in February 2025.
Sunita (Suni) L. Williams is on her third space mission. Selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998, she is a veteran of two earlier space missions spending a total of 322 days in space.
Williams, 58-years-old, was born in Euclid, Ohio to Deepak and Bonnie Pandya. She considers Needham, Massachusetts to be her hometown. Williams and her husband Michael enjoy working on cars and airplanes, hiking and camping.
Willliams graduated from Needham High School, Massachusetts, 1983. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Physical Science, U.S. Naval Academy, 1987, and a Master of Science in Engineering Management, Florida Institute of Technology, 1995.
In 1989, Williams was designated a Naval Aviator and made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. She has logged more than 3,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft.
Selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998, Williams worked in Moscow with the Russian Space Agency on the Russian contribution to the space station.
The International Space Station is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth. It serves as a home where crews of astronauts live. It is also a unique science laboratory, including to learn more about living and working in space.
Starting in 1998, the United States, Russia and other nations worked together to build and use the space station. It is made up of parts that were assembled in space by astronauts. The station orbits the Earth at an average altitude of approximately 250 miles, at a speed of 17,500 mph. This means it orbits Earth every 90 minutes.
In a video released this week, Dhruv Rathee seeks to figure out why Williams is stuck in the space station. Rathee has nearly 25 million subscribers for his YouTube channel. Though he speaks in Hindi, the channel is broadcast with English subtitles. He describes himself as an educator and traveler, who is “striving for a better world.”
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