Sunita Williams celebrates 59th birthday, second in space

New Delhi, Sep 20: Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams has celebrated her 59th birthday -- the second in space.

Williams is currently stranded at the International Space Station (ISS) after Boeing’s faulty Starliner spacecraft was declared unfit for human travel by NASA. While Starliner is back on Earth unharmed, Williams is expected to return on SpaceX’s capsule in February next year.

Williams marked her 59th birthday aboard the ISS on September 19. She dedicated her day to vital maintenance tasks and scientific research on the orbiting lab.

Along with fellow astronaut Don Pettit, she worked on maintaining life support systems on the ISS.

The astronaut duo then replaced filters in the station's waste and hygiene compartment -- called the space bathroom.

The 59-year-old created history by becoming the first woman to fly on the maiden mission of the Starliner. The Starliner flight is Williams’s third to space -- the first being in 2006 and the second in 2012.

According to NASA, "Sunita has spent a cumulative total of 322 days in space”, and she is the second woman astronaut with the highest number of spacewalks.

On her birthday, Williams received a rendition of legendary singer Mohd Rafi's birthday song 'Bar bar din ye aaye' from Indian music company Saregama.

In a post on Instagram, Saregama shared: "Come on India let's sing #HappyBirthdaySunita along with India's biggest icons and send our collective wishes to Astronaut Sunita Williams up in space. Use #HappyBirthdaySunita to post your videos and Tag @saregama_official".

In the video shared along with the post, film director Karan Johar, and iconic singers Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Hariharan, and Neeti Mohan sang the song to wish her birthday.

The post also called for people to make videos wishing Sunita Williams and share them with #HappyBirthdaySunita.

Meanwhile, Williams is expected to cast her votes in the 2024 US presidential elections, scheduled for November 5, from space.

Originally slated for an eight-day mission, William’s stay in space has now stretched to eight months.

Commenting on being stuck in space, the Indian-origin astronaut in a recent video press conference said, "That's how things go in this business."

She added that the transition to station life was "not that hard" since both astronauts had prior experience on the ISS.

Reflecting on her extended mission, Williams shared, "This is my happy place. I love being up here in space."