New Delhi, June 7 (Agency) Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and her co-pilot Butch Wilmore safely docked their Boeing Starliner at the International Space Station and Williams broke into a bit of a heartwarming dance as she wriggled out of the American made capsule. It was the first time the spacecraft, which came through a long and tortuous development programme, had been entrusted to carry people. The BBC quoted mission managers as saying that Starliner has experienced minor technical issues on the way, including a helium leak and some thruster failures. Williams, 58, was launched aboard the Boeing Starliner, alongside Barry Wilmore, a NASA astronaut, from Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 5. The Indian-American astronaut was seen in a video dancing on Thursday as the Boeing Starliner capsule safely docked with the ISS. Williams also created history becoming the first woman to pilot a new spacecraft on its inaugural crewed test flight to space. In a similar video posted by Boeing Space on X, Williams was seen coming outside the capsule and immediately breaking into a little dance in zero gravity as she hugs the other astronauts on ISS.
The mission, dubbed Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT), is a crucial step in certifying the Starliner for regular crewed flights to the ISS as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. If successful, Starliner will be the second private spacecraft after SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to transport astronauts to and from the orbiting laboratory. Williams has two previous space shuttle missions totalling 322 days in orbit under her belt. She previously set records for most spacewalks (seven) and spacewalk time (50 hours, 40 minutes) by a woman during her expeditions aboard the ISS in 2006-2007 and 2012. The capsule will stay docked with the ISS for around 26 hours after liftoff. Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to spend about a week aboard the station, conducting tests and validating Starliner’s systems before returning to Earth by a parachute-assisted landing in western US. Williams is now one of the most accomplished women in the history of space exploration.