MP assembly congratulates Sunita Williams on her safe return to Earth

    Bhopal, Mar 20 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh assembly on Thursday congratulated NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, amid thumping of desks, on her safe return to Earth after a prolonged mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
    Speaker Narendra Tomar said, “Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleagues have returned safely from ISS after nine months. Sunita Williams has become the first woman in space for so long.”
    The assembly did not meet on Wednesday on account of Rang Panchami when Williams returned.
    “This is a moment of pride for us. On behalf of the entire assembly, I congratulate her,” Tomar said as members thumped their desks in one accord.
    NASA astronauts Williams, Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth early Wednesday onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which splashed down in the sea off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.
    For Williams and Wilmore, test pilots for Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, an eight-day mission stretched to more than nine months as a series of helium leaks and thruster failures deemed their spacecraft unsafe. The spacecraft returned without them in September.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)