SUNITA WILLIAMS Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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SUNITA WILLIAMS
       

Sunita “Suni” Williams, Born September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio is a NASA astronaut. She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15. Williams is the second woman of Indian heritage to have been selected by NASA for a space mission after Kalpana Chawla and also the second astronaut of Slovenian heritage after Ronald M. Sega. She holds three records for female space travelers: longest spaceflight (188 days and counting), number of space walks (four), and total time spent on spacewalks (29 hours and 17 minutes).

       

Williams considers Needham, Massachusetts to be her hometown. She is married to Michael J. Williams, she is Indian-Slovenian American and has a pet Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby. Her recreational interests include running, swimming, biking, triathlons, windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting. She is an avid Boston Red Sox fan. Her parents are Deepak Pandya and Bonnie Pandya, who reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Dr. Deepak Pandya is a famous neuroanatomist. Williams’ roots on her father’s side go back to Gujarat in India and she has been to India to visit her father’s family. She is of Slovenian descent from her mother’s side.

       

Among the personal items Williams took with her to the International Space Station (ISS) are a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small figurine of Ganesha and some samosas.

       

After launching aboard Discovery, Williams arranged to donate her pony tail to Locks of Love. The haircut by fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham occurred aboard the International Space Station and the ponytail was brought back to earth with the STS-116 crew.

       

In early March 2007 she received a tube of wasabi in a Progress spacecraft resupply mission in response to her request for more spicy food. Opening the tube, which was packaged at one atmospheric pressure, the gel-like paste was forced out in the lower-pressure of the ISS. In the free-fall environment, the spicy geyser was difficult to contain.

       

On April 16, 2007, she ran the first marathon by an astronaut in orbit. Williams finished the Boston Marathon in four hours and 24 minutes. The other crew members reportedly cheered her on and gave her oranges during the race. Williams’ sister, Dina Pandya, and fellow astronaut Karen L. Nyberg ran the marathon on Earth, and Williams received updates on their progress from Mission Control.