Sunita Williams took off for her 2nd space journey

Indian-American record-making astronaut Sunita Williams along with her two other astronauts took off for her second space odyssey on a Russian Soyuz rocket. It took off successfully from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The other two members on board are Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide. They are on a four-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS).

Sunita Williams:

  • Born: September 19, 1965, in Euclid, Ohio
  • Williams is 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
  • She is of Slovenian descent from her mother’s side and Indian descent from her father’s which shows she is an Indian-Slovenian American.

Education:

  • Bachelor of Science degree in Physical science from the United States Naval Academy
  • Master of Science degree in Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology.

Her major space voyages:

  • Williams took off to the International Space Station (ISS) with STS-116, aboard the shuttle Discovery, on December 9, 2006 to join the Expedition 14 crew.
  • Williams became the first person to run the Boston Marathon from the space station on April 16, 2007
  • Currently she is on a 4-month trip to the ISS

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