Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams

Indian-origin astronaut SUNITA WILLIAMS

Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams, was born as Sunita Pandya Krishna on September 19, 1965. She is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who holds the record for longest spaceflight by a woman. 

She holds the record of the longest space flight (195 days) among female space travelers, and is on her second flight on Sunday 15 July 2012. She has been honored with Awarded Navy Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and various other service awards. 

She was awarded the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award by the World Gujarati Society[24], the first person of Indian origin who is not an Indian citizen to be presented the award. On October 4, 2007.

Williams was deployed onboard USS Saipan when she was selected for the astronaut program, and she has logged over 3000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. She was selected for training by NASA in June 1998. 

Williams served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, and 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.