Washington: Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams is set to break the US record for the longest stay in space as her ride back to Earth is expected to be delayed.
NASA officials are now looking at ways to make her stay in space easier given the additional physical and psychological pressures.
"Carl Walz and Dan Bursch set the US record for the longest single spaceflight in 2002, when they flew for 196 days. On Monday, the current space station commander, Michael Lopez-Alegria, will break that record and will set a new one
of 214 days if he lands as planned on 20 April.
"But that record will probably be shattered on 11 July by station astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been in space since December 9, 2006. That is because her ride home on the shuttle Endeavour, two shuttle flights from now, is not likely
to launch as planned on 28 June," the NewScientist.com news service has said.
The delay it is being pointed out has to do with a ripple effect from the delay of the next shuttle mission, Atlantis, which could not meet its planned March launch because of damages to the external tank from hail recently leaving "thousands of dings" in its foam insulation.
"I don't think she will be up there that much longer than was originally planned," says NASA's Deputy International Space Station manager, Kirk Shireman.
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