Washington DC,January 16: Ace Indian-origin astronaut and starliner station commander, Sunita Williams on Thursday came off the spacecraft and went on a spacewalk after almost 7 months in the space.
Sunita’s outing off the spacecraft was essential for station upgrade, informed NASA on its official X handle.
In a post on X, the NASA authorities wrote, “Two @NASA_Astronauts , Nick Hague and Suni Williams, step outside of the @Space_Station to support station upgrades, including repairs to our NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray telescope.”
In two more posts on X NASA wrote, “The patches for our NICER telescope have been installed thanks to @NASA_Astronauts Nick Hague!”
“The next steps for the NICER team include unstowing the telescope and restarting daytime observations to The NICER X-ray telescope with its 56 X-ray connectors is viewed from @AstroHague 's helmet camera as he prepares to patch thermal shields to prevent light leaks in the astrophysics device”,NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray telescope",the NASA's post read. 
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing's new Starliner capsule last June on what should have been a weeklong test flight. Meanwhile, the Starliner trouble dragged out their return, and prompted NASA to bring back the capsule empty.
Consequently, a new starliner was scheduled to embark on its mission in February 2025. However, the SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacement vehicles so far that lingers away Sunita and her team’s homecoming. Thus,Sunita and Hague duo might not return to the mother earth till late March or early April i.e ten months after launching, said sources.
