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Sunita L. Williams
Sunita L. Williams
Sunita L. Williams
takes off for second space mission into the space odyssey for the second time on
July 14, 2012. She is scheduled to return to earth on November 12, 2012. Day for voting for the US president is November 6.
46-year-old Williams along with two flight engineers — Japan’s Akihiko
Hoshide and Yury Malenchenko of Russia — departed on a two-day voyage to
the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at around O8:10 IST, Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported.
Now Sunita Williams enjoys Olympics from space.
Sunita Williams is the second woman of Indian heritage to have been selected by NASA for a space mission
after Kalpana. She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of
Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15. She holds three records for female space travelers: longest space flight (188
days and counting), number of space walks (four), and total time spent on
space walks (29 hours and 17 minutes). Sunita Williams, landed at Edwards Air Force Base at California at 1.19 am. on June 23, 2007.
Sunita Williams established a world record for females with
four space walks totaling 29 hours 17 minutes
Sunita Williams, a record-setting astronaut who lived and worked aboard the International Space Station for six months in 2006, is
headed to the space once again in July. Williams is scheduled to take off on July 14, 2012 from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and
Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA said.46-year-old Williams will be a flight engineer on the station's
Expedition 32 crew and will become commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the space station.
According to NASA, Williams and her colleagues will be aboard the station during an exceptionally busy period that includes two
spacewalks, the arrival of Japanese, US commercial and Russian re-supply vehicles, and an increasingly faster pace of scientific research.
Sunita L. Williams early life
Sunita Williams was born on September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio. Her parents are Deepak Pandya and Bonnie Pandya, who reside in Falmouth,
Massachusetts.Deepak Pandya is a famous neuroanatomist from Gujarat in India. Her parents, Dr. Deepak and Mrs. Bonnie
Pandya, reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Sunita has been to India to visit her father's family.
Among the personal items she took with her to the International Space
Station (ISS) are a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small figurine of Ganesha and some samosas.
Sunita L. Williams education was: Needham High School, Needham, Massachusetts, 1983. Bachelor of Science degree in Physical science
from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987, U.S. Naval Academy, 1987. Master of Science degree in
Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology in 1995.
Sunita L. Williams was married to Michael J. Williams. |
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Sunita L. Williams NASA career
She joined the Organizations: Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Society of Flight Test Engineers
and American Helicopter Association. Sunita L. Williams started
her NASA career in June 1998. As an expedition 14 flight engineer,
she participates in the mission's third planned session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction
resumes on the International Space Station. Selected by NASA in June 1998, Williams began her training in August
1998. Her Astronaut Candidate training included orientation briefings and tours,
numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle
and International Space Station systems, physiological training and ground
school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and
wilderness survival techniques. Following a period of training and evaluation,
Williams worked in Moscow with the Russian Space Agency on the Russian
contribution to the ISS, and with the first expedition crew sent to the
ISS. Sunita worked within the Robotics branch on the ISS Robotic Arm and the related Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator.
She was a crewmember on the NEEMO 2 mission, living underwater in the Aquarius habitat for nine days in May 2002.
SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE
Sunita Williams served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station.
Sunita Williams served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station. She launched with the crew of STS-116 on December
9, 2006, docking with the station on December 11, 2006. As a member of the
Expedition-14 crew Sunita Williams established a world record for females with
four space walks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes of EVA. (Astronaut Peggy
Whitson subsequently broke the record in 2008 with her five total spacewalks).
Williams concluded her tour of duty as a member of the Expedition-15 crew
returning to Earth with the STS-117 crew to land at Edwards Air Force Base on
June 22, 2007. During her increment in space, Sunita Williams broke the existing
record by Shannon Lucid, setting a new record for females of 195 days in space.
SPECIAL HONORS
Sunita Williams awarded Navy Commendation Medal (2), Navy and Marine Corps
Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and various other service awards.
Recreational interests
Sunita Williams recreational interests include running, swimming, biking, triathlons,
windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting. She has a pet Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby which was featured with her on
the "Dog Whisperer" television show on the National Geographic Channel on
November 12, 2010.
Sunita Williams visits India
Sunita Williams visited
India in September 2007. The astronaut, who spent a record 195 days onboard spaceship Discovery, arrived in Ahmedabad
on September 18, 2007 a week-long visit to India. She went to the Sabarmati
Ashram set up by Mahatma Gandhi in 1915, and also went her ancestral village
Jhulasan in Gujarat. She was awarded the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa
Pratibha Award by the World Gujarati Society, the first person of Indian origin
who is not an Indian citizen to be presented the award. She also visited her cousin's home on her nephew's birthday.
On October 4, 2007, Williams spoke at the American Embassy School, and then met Indian President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
On October 7, 2007 in Mumbai she said, " We are responsible for keeping Earth as we found it. From space, we
saw glacier in Himalayas. Major changes are going on the planet and we need to own up to that."
On September 21, 2007 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams is a role model for women and
children in the country. Singh, who spoke to the astronaut in Ahmedabad over phone, invited her to visit him in New Delhi.
He said she is a "role model" for Indian children and "sources of inspiration for Indian women," a PMO spokesman said.
Astronaut Sunita recount the technological challanges associated with the International Space Station
to a galaxy of scientists from across the world in Hyderabad on September 20. These scientists - 2000 of them, including head of space agencies of
US, Russia, Japan, China, Canada, Europe and India at the 58th International Astronautical Congress held in Hydrabad from September 24- 28.
Sunita is a Ganesh devotee, and had even taken a Ganesha idol with her when she
visited the International Space Station on her record- breaking space flight.
Sunita's relatives at her uncle's home in Ahmedabad, who celebrated her visit to Earth with gusto,
are also looking forward to seeing her again. "She loves Gujarat and she is returning here after a long time. Sunita is returning to Ahmedabad after a gap of almost ten years. But given
her hectic schedule, she might not be able to spend too much time with the family. |
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The
Second space flight
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-05M spaceship carrying a
new crew to the International Space Station blasts off from the Russian
leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan on July 14, 2012. Record-setting Indian-American cosmonaut Sunita Williams along with two
other astronauts on July 17, 2012 docked their Russian spacecraft at the International Space Station for a four-month stay.
46-year-old NASA astronaut Williams, Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri
Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide arrived at the ISS after two days in orbit.
The crew took off to the ISS successfully from Baikonur cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan on July 15 for a four-month long mission to the space station
Williams, a flight engineer on the station’s Expedition 32 crew, will
take over as commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the space station.
A sports lover herself, Sunita Williams is excited about watching the
London Olympics from the space and is looking forward to have some sort
of relay race at her current home -- the International Space Station.
Sunita Williams enjoys Olympics from space . Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, along with five others living aboard the
International Space Station for last two weeks, is enjoying the Olympics
from space.Sunita Williams enjoys Olympics from space Houston: Indian-American
astronaut Sunita Williams, along with five others living aboard the International Space Station for last two weeks, is enjoying the Olympics from space.
Sunita Williams takes over command at space station
Sunita Williams has taken over the command of the International Space Station ,
becoming the second woman in history to do so, even as a three-member
crew of the Expedition 32 returned safely to earth, wrapping up a mission lasting more than four months.
The three-man crew onboard a Russian-made Soyuz capsule touched down
successfully in central Kazakhstan steppe this morning (September
16, 2012) after spending 123 days at the Space Station. Just after the Soyuz spacecraft separated from the space station
on September 16, 2012, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams took over command of Expedition 33 at the station from Commander Gennady
Padalka, becoming the second woman in history to do so.
Williams will be sharing the Space Station with veteran Russia cosmonaut
Yuri Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide until mid-October, when three more astronauts, including NASA astronaut Kevin
Ford, will arrive and round out the full crew of Expedition 33.
Sunita Williams takes fifth spacewalk
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds the record of the longest space
flight (195 days) for a woman, has completed her fifth spacewalk lasting
a near record eight hours and 17 minutes on August 30, 2012 Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide set out from the
international space station at 5:46 p.m. Thursday (India time) and returned at 2:03 a.m. Friday, the US space agency NASA announced.
Sunita Williams wishes 'Happy Diwali' from space
Sunita Williams has greeted Indians around the world from space on the occasion
of Diwali. "I wish everybody in India and people of Indian origin around the world,
Happy Diwali. It is a wonderful day and a wonderful festival and I am
happy we are part of it up here at the International Space Station(ISS)," Williams said.
In a conversation with New York based TV host Riti Sunshine Bhalla, made
possible with months of planning between Bhalla's production team and
NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Williams thanked the Indian
people for their support and hoped to visit India next Diwali and meet them in person.
Williams had carried Bhagavad Gita with her to the ISS in her earlier
mission in 2006. In her current mission, she carried a picture of 'Om',
symbol of Hinduism and a copy of the Upanishads, which her father gifted
to her, the TV show organisers said Tuesday. "It is a small version but it definitely brings the wisdom to us while
we are here and allows us to think of the true meaning of life and what
we are doing", Williams told Bhalla, displaying her prized possessions while floating in the ISS.
Sunita
Williams has returned to earth From Outer Space
Indian−American astronaut Sunita Williams has returned to earth after 127 days in space with a new record under her
belt − the most spacewalking time by a female at 50 hours and 40 minutes
over seven career excursions. Williams, who was commander of Expedition 33 on the International Space
Station returned home with two space−going colleagues aboard a Russian
Soyuz capsule that landed at 8:56 p.m. Sunday (November 18, 2012) night northeast of
Arkalyk in the steppes of Kazakhstan, according to US space agency NASA.
Williams has logged 322 days during two space flights making her second
on the list of most experienced US female astronauts. She also holds the
record of longest spaceflight (195 days) for female space travellers.
India doing excellent in space programmes
Lauding Indian space agency ISRO, US astronaut Sunita Williams Monday
said it was doing an excellent job and wished that more Indian American
women follow her and the late Kalpana Chawla into space. She also praised India's lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1 and 2) and the
Mars exploration mission schedule for later this year.
India and the US have agreed to cooperate on future missions to the Moon
and Mars after successful collaboration in Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission.
Chandrayaan-1, which carried two National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) instruments, successfully found water particles on
the Moon's soil with the help of a US instrument. Williams also wished for India to produce more astronauts like Kalpana
Chawla - the first Indian-born woman to go into space. "I hope of another Kalpana Chawla going there (space)," said the US Navy
captain, clad in a blue flight suit of the kind astronauts wear in space.
Chawla, who hailed from Karnal in Haryana, was killed in 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry.
Sunita Williams India trip started in New Delhi Monday, where she interacted with
students at the National Science Centre. During the week she will be interacting with students in Kolkata, Mumbai
and Gujarat. Williams last visited India in October 2007, when she gave a talk at the
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.
Earth from Space - Photos by Sunita |
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Men, women should be treated equally in society and this will avoid rape: Sunita Williams
"Men and women should be treated equally in society. This will avoid the
sad incidences like the one that happened in Delhi recently," said
Sunita Williams on January 04, 2013.
Addressing the student fraternity at Maharashtra Institute of Technology
through video conferencing from the US, she said, "I never looked at
myself as a woman in this male dominated career. I never tried to stand
out as someone different and gave work my best shot. Instead of saying
look at me, I am a woman, I concentrated on my work and that is what
matters," said Williams. Williams broke down twice as she was overwhelmed by the reaction of
students.
Astronaut duo complete spacewalk to isolate ammonia leak
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Hoshidea board the International Space Station (ISS) stepped outside the orbiting outpost on November 1,
2012 to successfully perform an unexpected, US segment-based spacewalk to fix an ammonia leak in the
cooling system of a power distribution channel.
The Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) was 20th to be performed on the US Segment by an ISS
crew, giving it the designation US EVA-20.Both Williams and Hoshide must return to Earth
aboard their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft on November 19,. |
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