Friday, 7 September 2012

Sunita Williams

Indian-American record-setting astronaut Sunita Williams along with her two colleagues took off for her second space odyssey on a Russian Soyuz rocket, which blasted off successfully from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Russian Soyuz is the only way to reach the International Space Station for American Astronauts until the commercial sector comes through with a new American made rocket.

Forty-six-year-old Nasa astronaut Williams, Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide started their two-day voyage at 8.10 a.m. for a four-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS).

Born in Euclid in Ohio and raised in Massachusetts, Williams, who had earlier lived and worked aboard the ISS for six months in 2006-07, will further extend the record for the longest stay in space for a woman astronaut.


The space travel by Sunita Williams Williams, a flight engineer on the station's Expedition 32 crew, will take over as commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the space station. The trio will join the current ISS occupants ~ Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and Nasa astronaut Joe Acaba, who have been in orbit since 17 May.

The six crew members will work together for about two months. Acaba, Padalka and Revin are scheduled to return to Earth on 17 September.



Before they depart, Padalka will hand over command of the station and Expedition 33 to Williams. She, Malenchenko and Hoshide will return home in mid-November, Nasa said. The new crew members are expected to conduct over 30 scientific missions during their stay aboard the ISS.



Williams, whose father hailed from Gujarat, was selected as an astronaut by Nasa in 1998. She was assigned to the ISS as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15. She holds the record of the longest spaceflight ~ 195 days ~ for woman space travellers.



She received a Master's degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1995.



In the space, Williams and her team of astronauts plan an orbital sporting event to mark the Summer Olympics in London.



Williams was quoted as saying in the media that she is excited about watching the London Summer Olympics from the station and put a much more global perspective on the mega sporting event beginning July 27.



Brief Intro



Sunita Williams (born Sunita Pandya Krishna; September 19, 1965) is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who holds the record for longest spaceflight by a woman. She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15.



She holds the record of the longest space flight (195 days) among female space travelers.  Williams also holds two other records for women space travellers: most number of spacewalks (four as of 15 July 2012), and total time spent on spacewalks (29 hours and 17 minutes).



She is married to Michael J. Williams, a Federal police officer in Oregon. The two have been married for more than 20 years, and both flew helicopters in the early days of their careers.



She has a pet Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby who was featured with her on the "Dog Whisperer" television show on the National Geographic Channel on November 12, 2010.



Her recreational interests include running, swimming, biking, triathlons, windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting. She is an avid Boston Red Sox fan.



Williams is the second woman of Indian origin to have been selected by NASA for a space mission after Kalpana Chawla and the second Astronaut of Slovenian origin after Ronald M. Sega. She holds the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman (195 days).

Education



Williams attended Needham High School in Needham, Massachusetts, graduating in 1983.



She went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical science from the United States Naval Academy in 1987, and a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology in 1995.

No comments:

Post a Comment