Stuck... In... Space...!

It's a good thing NASA astronaut Sunita Williams apparently enjoys being aboard the International Space Station... because she's going to have to stay there a bit longer than originally planned.

Blame it on the weather -- specifically, the February hailstorm at Kennedy Space Center that damaged the shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank. As Aero-News reported, NASA had to pull the shuttle off the pad to examine the damage, and the jury is still out on whether NASA will opt to repair the tank at Kennedy, or a new tank will have to be attached to Atlantis.

In either case, NASA's shuttle launch schedule for the year is out of whack, according to CNN. (That's the actual term the news agency used -- Ed.)

And that, in turn, means Williams -- who originally planned to come home in early July, onboard the flight after Atlantis -- may end up setting the all-time record for continuous time in space by a US astronaut. The record is now held by Williams' crewmate, Michael Lopez-Alegria -- who's scheduled to catch a lift back to Earth onboard a Soyuz capsule April 20, after 214 days in orbit.

Doctors on Earth will monitor Williams' physical condition, radiation exposure and mental health. Flight surgeon Dave Alexander says he doesn't expect any complications, adding "right now, the predictions are Suni can stay up for an extended period of time."

"We're doing things we can as best we can to make her happy, and perhaps launch some special items that will make her more comfortable for that extended period of time," said NASA's station program deputy manager Kirk Shireman. "Aside from that, there's not a whole lot that one can do."

Except, perhaps, send up some sushi; as it turns out, Williams is a sushi aficionado. She garnered some attention earlier this month, when she accidentally squirted wasabi from a tube into the weightless environment of the station, in an attempt to fashion a makeshift sushi meal with some bagged salmon. The wasabi wound up on the walls.

"We finally got the wasabi smell out after it was flying around everywhere," Williams told her mother in conversation arranged by Boston radio station WBZ after the incident. "We cleaned it up off the walls a little bit."

FMI: www.nasa.gov