Sunita Williams doesn’t Feel “Abandoned ” in Space
By the time she returns to Earth, Sunita Williams will have spent at least 280 days more than originally planned at the International Space Station. But unlike insinuations from President Trump, she and crewmate Barry “Butch” Wilmore do not feel abandoned.
“I don’t think I’m abandoned. I don’t think we’re stuck up here,” she told CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson during a recent in-flight interview. “We’ve got food. We’ve got clothes. We have a ride home in case anything really bad does happen to the International Space Station.”
Trump had blamed the mission extension on the Biden administration, saying in a social media post that he had asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to “go get” the two “brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden administration.”
When Williams and Wilmore went into space last June aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, they were expected to return after just a week. But problems with the Starliner forced NASA to extend their stay. They’re expected to return around March 19.
The extended stay allowed Wiliams to participate in her 9th spacewalk in late January, a 5-hour and 26-minute spacewalk in which she set a record for spacewalking. She has spacewalked for 60 hours and 21 minutes during her career.
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Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
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