Sunita Williams took off for her 2nd space journey

July 18, 2012

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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