Sunita Williams Biography 
Sunita Williams is a famous American astronaut of NASA since 1998. She is of Indo-Slovenian descent. Her father Deepak Pandya of Gujarat origin is a very famous Indian American neuroanatomist. A veteran of two space missions Expeditions 14/15 and 32/33, she is the second lady of Indian origin after Kalpana Chawla to achieve this feat. As per latest reports (in August 2018), she joins 8 other astronauts to fly on Boeing, SpaceX spacecraft, as said by NASA. She earlier held a record for total spacewalks by a woman when she completed seven, and also most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes). She became the first person to run a marathon from the space station on April 16, 2007.
Her maiden name is Sunita Pandya, born to Indian father and Slovene American mother in Euclid, Ohio, U.S. She was born in 1965. She has two elder siblings. Sunita graduated from Needham High School in Needham, Massachusetts, in 1983. She completed her graduation in science in 1987, and Master’s in engineering in the year 1995 from Florida. After that she joined her military service in 1987, where she was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy. She was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989, and received training.
She was selected by NASA for the astronaut program in 1998 soon after India’s first lady to space -Kalpana Chawla completed her first space mission. She started her training at the Johnson Space Center and was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) with STS-116 in 2006. Thus she became a crew member of space mission Expeditions 14/15. She was also a member of space missions Expeditions 32/33 in 2012. A former member of Society of Experimental Test Pilots, she is a recipient of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and the award was handed over to her when she visited India for the last time in 2007.
Published: August 03, 2018
Updated: August 03, 2018
