Name: Sunita Williams

Other Name: Sunita Lyn Suni Williams, Sunita Lyn Williams

Profession: NASA Astronaut

Nationality: American

Date of Birth: September 19, 1965

Age: 52 Years

Sun Sign : Virgo

Place of Birth: Euclid, Ohio, United States

Father's Name: Deepak Pandya

Mother's Name: Bonnie Pandya

Siblings: Dina Anna, Jay Thomas

Husband's Name: Michael J. Williamsv

Religion: Hinduism

City : OhioEducation: Needham High School (1983), States Naval Academy (1987), Florida Institute of Technology (1995), United Awards: Padma Bhushan

Time in space: 321 days 17 hours 15 minutes

Missions: STS-116, Expedition 14, Expedition 15, STS-117, Soyuz TMA-05M (Expedition 32/33)

Awards: Padma Bhushan, Congressional Space Medal Of Honor

Introduction

Sunita is a former US navy officer and an American astronaut. She had flown over a 30 different types of aircrafts and has completed around 2, 770 hours in flight. She first started with becoming a naval pilot and then went on to become a test pilot instructor. She was selected as an astronaut in NASA and had spent 322 days in space including in on total of two missions. She was ranked sixth on the list of all-time US endurance. She served as flight engineer on Expedition 32, was assigned to ISS (International Space Station) on Expedition 14 and 15 and had served as the commander of the Expedition 33.

She had on her name a number of records while on ISS. She holds 8th position on the list of which showcases the most experienced spacewalkers. Her personal record is of 50 hours and 40 minutes which is the cumulative spacewalk time. She also had a world record among the woman of total four spacewalks that totals to 29 hours and 17 minutes. She was selected by NASA in the year 2015, July, onboard among the first astronaut for a Commercial spaceflight of United States.

Early Life and Childhood

She was born in Euclid, Ohio in the year 1965, July 19 and she belongs to an Indian-Slovenian descent. She was born to Indian-American neuro-anatomist Deepak Pandya, her father and Slovene-American Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, the mother and they live in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Sunita also had an elder brother Jay Thomas and elder sister Dina Anna. Her paternal family basically belongs to Gujarat, India from the Jhulasan, Mehsana district.

Education

She completed her High Schools from Needham High School in 1983 from Massachusetts and later on she completed her Bachelor's Degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1987 in physical science. After that she also completed her Master's Degree from Florida Institute of Technology in 1995 in Engineering Management.

Career

In the year 1987, May, she took charge as an Ensign in the US Navy. She temporarily did an assignment at the Naval Coastal System Command which lasted for six months and after that she was elected as the a Basic Diving Officer who was supposed to report to the Naval Aviation Training Command.

In the year 1989, she started reporting to the Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 3 for initial H-46 Sea Knight, training as a Naval Aviator. After she completed with the training she got signed to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 in Virginia. During that time, she worked in support of Operation Provide Comfort and Dessert shield and in that regards she made deployments overseas into the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.

In the Year 1992, she was elected as the officer in charge of an H-46 detachment and was sent to Florida, Miami where she worked for Hurricane Andrew Relief Operations.

In the year 1993, in January she completed a course at the United States Naval Test Pilot School, which completed in 1993, December. Upon this, she became project officer liable to look at the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as an H-46. Then she became the Project Officer of the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as V-22 and H-46. Then she was elected as the Squadron Safety Officer.

In the year 1995, December, she started working as an Instructor at the Department of Rotary Wing in the Naval Test Pilot School and apart from that she also worked at the school's Safety Officer Post. She also flew OH-58, UH-60 and OH-6, after which she became Aircraft Handler and the Assistant Air Boss, assigned to the USS Saipan (LHA-2), Norfolk, Virginia.

In the year 1998, she was selected by NASA for astronaut training before which she had flown 30 different aircrafts and she had on her name in all 3000 flight hours. She also began Astronaut Candidate training in the same year in August and during that time she also got an opportunity to learn ISS systems, received physiological training, learnt water and wilderness survival techniques and took T-38 flight training.

After completion of the training she went to Moscow to work at the Russian Space Agency with the Russian Space station. Apart from that she also had got the chance to work in the Robotic Arm of the Robotic branch. While she was crew member of NEEMO2, she got the chance to live under the Aquarius habitat and that was about for 9 days.

In the year 2006, December, when he joined Expedition 14 crew, she got launched to ISS (International Space Station) aboard the space shuttle Discovery. She worked as a flight Engineer while she was serving as the crew member of the Expedition 14.

In the year 2007, 22nd June, she came back to Earth with the crew of STS-117 in California at the Edwards Air Force Base.

In the year 2012, on 15th of July, she got launched as a part of Expedition 32/33 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On 17th of September in the same year she was designated at the post of the commander of the ISS and she was the second woman to have served on this post.

In the year 2015, in July she got selected as the first astronaut for serving in the US Commercial flights. Till October 2017, she has been found working in close connection with the Boeing and SpaceX.

Marriage

Sunita Williams got married to Michael J. Williams who is a Federal police officer in Oregon. They do not have any children of their own while she was want to adopt a girl child from Gujarat in India.

A special documentary featuring her was shot that was titled as 'The Mars Generation' that illustrates about a new generation who has gotten into the shoes to go to the Mars. She also had a pet named as Gorby which too was featured in a Television show named 'Dog Whisperer' which was showcased on the National Geaographical channel.

Achievements and Awards

• She has the on her name a record of a female astronaut with a total cumulative spacewalk of 50 hours and 40 minutes.
• She holds 8th rank on the list which showcases the list of most experienced spacewalkers.
• While she was onboard ISS, she made a world record of four spacewalks counted among females that totaled to 29 hours and 17 minutes.