Sunita Williams

Sunita Lyn Williams ( Pandya; born September 19, 1965), nicknamed Suni in the United States and Sončka in Slovenia, is an American astronaut, United States Navy officer, and former record holder for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes).

Williams was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and Expedition 15.

Williams graduated from Needham High School in 1983.

She received 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.

Williams was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy in May 1987.

After a six-month temporary assignment at the Naval Coastal System Command, she was designated a Basic Diving Officer.

She next reported to the Naval Air Training Command, where she was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989.

She received initial H-46 Sea Knight training in Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 3 (HC-3), and was then assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 (HC-8) in Norfolk, Virginia, with which she made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort.

In September 1992, she was the Officer-in-Charge of an H-46 detachment sent to Miami, Florida, for Hurricane Andrew relief operations aboard USS Sylvania (AFS-2).

In January 1993, Williams began training at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

She graduated in December, and was assigned to the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as an H-46 Project Officer and V-22 chase pilot in the T-2.

Later, she was assigned as the squadron Safety Officer and flew test flights in the SH-60B/F, UH-1, AH-1W, SH-2, VH-3, H-46, CH-53, and the H-57.

In December 1995, she went back to the Naval Test Pilot School as an instructor in the Rotary Wing Department and as the school's Safety Officer.

There she flew the UH-60, OH-6, and the OH-58.

She was then assigned to USS Saipan (LHA-2) as the Aircraft Handler and the Assistant Air Boss.

Williams was deployed on Saipan in June 1998 when she was selected by NASA for the astronaut program.

She has logged more than 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft types.

Williams began her astronaut candidate training at the Johnson Space Center in August 1998.

Williams was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) with STS-116, aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, on December 9, 2006, to join the Expedition 14 crew.

In April 2007, the Russian members of the crew rotated, changing to Expedition 15.

After launching Williams arranged to donate her pony tail to Locks of Love.

Fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham cut her hair aboard the International Space Station and the ponytail was brought back to Earth by the STS-116 crew.

Williams performed her first extra-vehicular activity on the eighth day of the STS-116 mission.

On January 31, February 4, and February 9, 2007, she completed three spacewalks from the ISS with Michael López-Alegría.

During one of these walks, a camera became untethered, probably because the attaching device failed, and floated off to space before Williams could react.

On the third spacewalk, Williams was outside the station for 6 hours and 40 minutes to complete three spacewalks in nine days.

She has logged 29 hours and 17 minutes in four spacewalks, eclipsing the record held by Kathryn C. Thornton for most spacewalk time by a woman.

On December 18, 2007, during the fourth spacewalk of Expedition 16, Peggy Whitson surpassed Williams, with a cumulative EVA time of 32 hours, 36 minutes.

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.

When she opened 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 26, 2007, NASA decided to bring Williams back to Earth on the STS-117 mission aboard Atlantis.

Although she did not break the U.S. single spaceflight record that was recently broken by former crew member Commander Michael López-Alegría, she did break the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman.

Williams served as a mission specialist and returned to Earth on June 22, 2007, at the end of the STS-117 mission.

In 2012, she served as a flight engineer on Expedition 32 and then commander of Expedition 33.

Williams is a native of Needham, Massachusetts, was born in Euclid, Ohio, to Mumbai Indian-American neuroanatomist Deepak Pandya and Slovene-American Ursuline Bonnie (Zalokar) Pandya, who reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

She was the youngest of three children.

Her brother Jay Thomas is four years older and her sister Dina Annad is three years older.

Williams' paternal family is from Jhulasan in the Mehsana district in Gujarat, India, whereas her maternal family is of Slovene descent.

Williams has taken the Slovenian flag, a samosa and Carniolan sausage to space in celebration of her Indian and Slovenian heritage.