Sunita Williams to fly to space once again

Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is ready to fly into space for the third time on Tuesday as the pilot aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in its first crewed test flight, PTI reported. Boeing's Starliner will blast off for the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Starliner will carry Williams, 58, and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station, marking what could be a momentous and long-awaited victory for the beleaguered Boeing programme.

The scheduled lift-off is set for 22:34 local time on Monday (8:04 am IST on Tuesday)

"We are all here because we are all ready. Our friends and family have heard about it and we've talked about it and they are happy and proud that we are part of the process to fix it all," the BBC quoted Williams as saying The mission has been delayed for several years because of setbacks in the spacecraft's development.

If it is successful, it will become the second private firm able to provide crew transport to and from the ISS, alongside Elon Musk's SpaceX. Such a scenario with both SpaceX's Crew

Dragon and Starliner flying regularly - is one for which the US space agency NASA has long waited.

“Design and development is hard - particularly with a human space vehicle,” said Mark Nappi, vice president and Starliner programme manager at Boeing, during a Thursday news briefing.

“There's a number of things that were surprises we had to overcome. . It certainly made the team very, very strong. I'm very proud of how they've overcome every single issue that we've encountered and gotten us to this point,” Nappi said.

“This is history in the making," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said of the upcoming mission.This is Boeing's second flight to the International Space Station and third Starliner flight test overall.