Indian-American astronaut Sunita 'Suni' Williams moved into a room with a view at her new home amid the stars for six months. Sunita arrived at the International Space Station with her six companions on board the space shuttle Discovery onTuesday .
"Tally-ho on the newhome," sang out Suni, as navy commander Sunita Williams is affectionately called by her friends, as the shuttle crew first caught sight of the station. "It's beautiful. The solar arrays are glowing."
Replied astronaut Kevin Ford atMission Control in Houston, "I don't know what kind of creature comforts are going to be aboard, but I know it's going to be a room with a view."
Discovery astronauts floated aboard the Space Station at 5:24 am IST on Tuesday, the start of a week-long stay to hook up a new power system so that new laboratory modules can be added to the complex.
All the seven, five of whom including Williams are making their first trip to space, scrambled through Discovery's hatch and into the welcoming arms of station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and his crew, Mikhail Tyurin of Russia and Thomas Reiter of Germany.
Williams will take the place of Flight Engineer Reiter of the European Space Agency who will return to Earth with the other six astronauts on December 18. The 12-day flight is expected to wrap up with a landing at the Kennedy Space
Centre in Florida on December 21.
Williams will take the place of Flight Engineer Reiter of the European Space Agency who will return to Earth with the other six astronauts on December 18. The 12-day flight is expected to wrap up with a landing at the Kennedy Space
Centre in Florida on December 21.