Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams made history as the first woman to pilot a new spacecraft on its inaugural crewed test flight to space. Williams and her crewmate, NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore, successfully docked the Boeing Starliner capsule with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday. The 58-year-old Williams and Wilmore had launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the Boeing Starliner on June 5. Celebrating their achievement, Williams was seen dancing after the successful docking.

In a video shared by Boeing Space on X, Sunita Williams is seen exiting the capsule, performing a small dance in zero gravity, and hugging the other astronauts on the ISS. This mission, known as the Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT), is a pivotal step in certifying the Starliner for regular crewed flights to the ISS as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. If successful, the Starliner will become the second private spacecraft, after SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, to ferry astronauts to and from the orbiting laboratory.

For Williams, a seasoned astronaut with two previous space shuttle missions and 322 days in orbit, this flight adds another pioneering milestone to her career. She previously set records for the most spacewalks (seven) and the most spacewalk time (50 hours, 40 minutes) by a woman during her ISS missions in 2006-2007 and 2012.

The Starliner capsule will stay docked with the ISS for about 26 hours after liftoff, carrying Williams, Wilmore, and over 500 pounds of cargo for the station. The astronauts are scheduled to spend approximately a week aboard the ISS, conducting tests and validating Starliner’s systems before returning to Earth with a parachute-assisted landing in the western United States.

Williams’s achievement is particularly meaningful due to her Indian-Slovenian heritage. Born to an Indian-American father from Gujarat and a Slovenian-American mother, she has celebrated her multicultural background by bringing Indian and Slovenian items on her previous spaceflights.

As Williams and Wilmore continue their mission aboard the ISS, their pioneering journey on the Starliner represents a significant step in expanding human access to space through commercial partnerships. This mission also solidifies Williams’ legacy as one of the most accomplished women in space exploration history.

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