Washington, June 23 (IANS) Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams returned home after a 195-day record space odyssey with Space shuttle Atlantis making a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
The shuttle with Williams and six fellow astronauts bringing her back from the International Space Station landed in California at 3:49 p.m. Friday (1:19 a.m. IST Saturday) after aborting a bid to land at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida due to bad weather.
Landing of Atlantis with Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Lee Archambault at the controls, marked the end of a record-setting space flight by Suni Williams lasting 194 days, 18 hours and 58 minutes. She broke the record for the longest space flight early in the morning on June 16.
On her very first space journey, Sunita with four excursions spread over 29 hours and 17 minutes also broke the record for most space walks by a woman.
Williams’ space journey began on December 9 with the launch of Atlantis. The shuttle blasted off June 8 to fetch Williams and install new solar power panels aboard the International Space Station.
American astronaut Clayton Anderson has replaced her as the new flight engineer on the station.
Indo-Asian News Service
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