* THIS PROFILE IS ONLY A FAN PAGE. IT IS NOT LINKED TO SUNITA HERSELF. THIS IS FOR ANYONE WHO APPRECIATES HER AS A PERSON AND A PROFESSIONAL ASTRONAUT.*
SUNITA L. WILLIAMS (COMMANDER, USN)
NASA ASTRONAUT
PERSONAL .. Born September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio, but considers Needham, Massachusetts to be her hometown. Married to Michael J. Williams. Although they have no children, Labrador retrievers and a crazy Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby have added their share of excitement to their lives. Recreational interests include running, swimming, biking, triathlons, windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting. Her parents, Dr. Deepak and Mrs. Bonnie Pandya, reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
EDUCATION: Needham High School, Needham, Massachusetts, 1983.B.S., Physical Science, U.S. Naval Academy, 1987.
M.S., Engineering Management, Florida Institute of Technology, 1995.
ORGANIZATIONS: Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Society of Flight Test Engineers, American Helicopter Association.
SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded Navy Commendation Medal (2), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and various other service awards.
EXPERIENCE: Williams received her commission as an Ensign in the United States Navy from the United States Naval Academy in May 1987. After a six-month temporary assignment at the Naval Coastal System Command, she received her designation as a Basic Diving Officer and then reported to Naval Aviation Training Command. She was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989. She then reported to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 3 for initial H46, Seaknight, training. Upon completion of this training, she was assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 in Norfolk, Virginia, and made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf in support of 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 onboard USS Sylvania. Williams was selected for United States Naval Test Pilot School and began the course in January 1993. After graduation in December 1993, she was assigned to the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as an H-46 Project Officer, and V-22 Chase Pilot in the T-2. While there she was also 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 the school’s Safety Officer. There she flew the UH-60, OH-6 and the OH-58. From there she was assigned to the USS Saipan (LHA-2), Norfolk, Virginia, as the Aircraft Handler and the Assistant Air Boss. Williams was deployed onboard USS Saipan when she was selected for the astronaut program.
She has logged over 2770 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in June 1998, she reported for training in August 1998. Astronaut Candidate Training included orientation briefings and tours, numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training and ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques. Following a period of training and evaluation, Williams worked in Moscow with the Russian Space Agency on the Russian contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) and with the first Expedition Crew to the ISS. Following the return of Expedition-1, Williams worked within the Robotics branch on the ISS Robotic Arm and the follow on Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. As a NEEMO2 crewmember she lived underwater in the Aquarius habitat for 9 days. Suni Williams served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station. She launched with the crew of STS-116 on December 9, 2006, docking with the station on December 11, 2006. As a member of the Expedition-14 crew Suni Williams established a world record for females with four spacewalks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes of EVA. She concluded her tour of duty as a member of the Expedition-15 crew returning to Earth with the STS-117 crew to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base on June 22, 2007. She has logged a total of 195 days in space.
JUNE 2007
STS-116
STS-116 was a flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS). Liftoff was originally scheduled for December 7, 2006, but that attempt was canceled due to a low cloud ceiling. Discovery successfully lifted off during the second launch attempt on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 8:47:35 p.m. EST. It was the first night launch of a Space Shuttle orbiter since STS-113, which launched on November 23, 2002.[1] The main goals of the mission were delivery and attachment of the International Space Station's third port truss segment (the P5 truss), major rewiring of the station's power system, and exchange of ISS Expedition 14 personnel. The shuttle landed at 5:32 p.m. EST on Friday, December 22, 2006 at Kennedy Space Center, a delay of 98 minutes from schedule due to unfavorable weather conditions.
STS-116 was the final scheduled Space Shuttle flight to be launched from Pad 39B as NASA reconfigures it for the Ares I. The only remaining use of Pad 39B by Shuttles is as a reserve for a potential STS-3xx rescue mission for STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
As one of the main goals of STS-116 was to exchange ISS Expedition 14 crew members, the crew of STS-116 changed mid-flight. ISS Flight Engineer Sunita "Suni" Williams was part of the STS-116 crew for the first portion of the mission. She then replaced ISS Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter on the Expedition 14 crew and Reiter joined the STS-116 crew for the return to Earth.
Mark Polansky (2) - Commander
William Oefelein (1) - Pilot
Nicholas Patrick (1) - Mission specialist
Robert Curbeam (3) - Mission specialist
Christer Fuglesang (1) - Mission specialist - Sweden ESA
Joan Higginbotham (1) - Mission specialist
MISSION HIGHLIGHTS The STS-116 mission delivered and attached the International Space Station's third port truss segment, the P5 truss.
The STS-116 mission brought to the Station Expedition 14 crew member Sunita Williams (who subsequently established a record for most time in space for a female astronaut) and brought home Expedition 14 crew member Thomas Reiter from European Space Agency (launched by STS-121).
Christer Fuglesang became Sweden's first astronaut. His flight was a rare occurrence of two ESA astronauts flying in space together.
The third of three SPHERES testbeds launched to the ISS.
Astronauts completed major rewiring of the electrical system of the International Space Station in order to bring online the P3/P4 solar array installed by STS-115 in September. Additional rewiring was done to ISS Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA2) to enable Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) commencing with STS-118.
One half of the original P6 solar array installed by STS-97 was folded to make room for the new P4 array deployed by STS-115 to rotate and track the sun.
STS-116 was the last STS mission scheduled for launch from pad 39B. The pad will be refitted for upcoming Ares I launches.
The crew of STS-116 consisted of five rookie astronauts. Only Mission Commander Mark Polansky and Mission specialist Robert Curbeam had previously flown in space.
Robert Curbeam became the first astronaut to make four EVAs during the same mission.
This was the first mission with two African-American crewmembers.
EXPEDITION 14
Crew:
Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria,
Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin,
Flight Engineer Sunita Williams,
Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter (ESA),
Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari
Launch Vehicle:
ISS Soyuz 13 (TMA-9)
Launch:
Sept. 18, 2006
12:09 a.m. EDT
Docking:
Sept. 20, 2006
1:24 a.m. EDT
Spacewalks:
Nov. 22, 2006,
Jan. 31, 2007,
Feb. 4, 2007,
Feb. 8, 2007,
Feb. 22, 2007
Landing:
April 21, 2007
Time in orbit:
215 days, 8 hours and 23 minutes
EXPEDITION 15
Indian American Astronaut Sunita Williams achieved yet another milestone by being 210 miles above earth and circling it at least twice, running as fast as eight mph but flying more than five miles each second, as she completed the Boston Marathon on a International Space station treadmill.
Her unofficial completion time was four hours and 24 minutes as she completed the race at 2:24 pm. EDT.
Sunita, 41, an accomplished marathoner, attempted something no other astronaut has ever done. She is now the first astronaut in space to have ran a marathon while in orbit.
And, Sunita hopes her unique run will serve as an inspiration. ''I encourage kids to start making physical fitness part of their daily lives,'' Sunita said. ''I think a big goal like a marathon will help get this message out there.''
Sunita started the race on time at 10 am EDT with race No 14,000 taped to the front of the treadmill. She had placed two laptop computers on either side of the treadmill and was closely watching a live feed of the race from Boston and keep track of where the ISS was flying.
Wearing Boston Red Sox socks under her navy shirt and shorts, Sunita woke up several hours earlier than her crew mates because of the marathon.
Also at the space station were US astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and space tourist Charles Simonyi.
Unlike her 24,000 drenched and wet Boston counterparts on Earth, which included her sister Dina Pandya, Sunita ran under better weather conditions.
Runners in Boston had to face chilly weather, 48 degrees and some rain, mist and wind gusts of 28 mph while station weather was 78 degrees with no wind or rain with 50 per cent humidity.
STS-117
Landing was set for June 21, 2007, but due to bad weather, landing was scrubbed until June 22, 2007. The Space Shuttle Atlantis finally landed at 3:49:38 EDT at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
* Best interview EVER with Astronaut Sunita Williams at a beach party for Astronaut Barbara Morgan on August 6, 2007. Sunita holds three records for female space travelers: longest space flight (195 days), number of space walks (four), and total time spent on spacewalks - 29 hours and 17 minutes.
Interview by Renee Sotile & Mary Jo Godges, directors of Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars:
STS-117 - ATLANTIS CREW RETURNS TO NASA'S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
A VERY INFORMATIVE INTERVIEW WITH SUNI
MYSPACE FRIENDS WHO HAVE MET SUNITA! * On August 22, 2007, James Martinez of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas had the wonderful opprotunity to meet Sunita.
If anyone else has met Sunita and had a photo taken with her and would like it to appear on this site, please feel free to email it to me here on MySpace or send it to:
[email protected] and I Shawna, the moderator of this site will post it! Thank you!
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