Astronaut stuck in space

Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space — at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay. She is going to come back a little (?) more later than she planned since she is stuck up in space. The reason she is stuck up there right now is because a hailstorm hit her on her way to space shuttle, Atlantis, damaging her fuel tank. This also affected NASA’s flight schedule for the year. Which also caused her ticket home, space shuttle Endeavour, to get off the ground several weeks later than its originally scheduled June 28 launch. Now she will have to wait longer to go back to her favorite sushi restaurant in Boston. “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 Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy manager of the space station program. "Aside from that, there's not a whole lot that one can do." Flight surgeon Dave Alexander said Williams' physical fitness, mental well-being and radiation exposure would be monitored carefully, but "right now, the predictions are Sunita can stay up for an extended period of time." During her longer stay in space, Williams is expected to break the U.S. record for continuous time in space. Her current crewmate, Michael Lopez-Alegria, will set that record when he returns to Earth on April 20 in a Russian Soyuz vehicle with 214 days in space. So at least she will benefit in a way. I feel really bad for Sunita. I can’t imagine how it would feel to be stuck in space, the middle of nowhere. I guess she is living through a nightmare right now.