Sunita Williams (born September 19, 1965, Euclid, Ohio, U.S.) is an American astronaut who set information on her three flights to the International Space Station (ISS).
In 1983 Williams entered the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. She was made an ensign in 1987 and reported for aviator coaching on the Naval Aviation Coaching Command. In July 1989 she started fight helicopter coaching. She flew in helicopter assist squadrons through the preparations for the Persian Gulf War and the institution of no-fly zones over Kurdish areas of Iraq, in addition to in reduction missions throughout Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in Miami.
In 1993 she turned a naval take a look at pilot, and he or she later turned a take a look at pilot teacher, flying greater than 30 completely different plane and logging greater than 2,770 flight hours. When chosen for the astronaut program, she was stationed aboard the USS Saipan.
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Williams accomplished an M.S. in engineering administration from the Florida Institute of Expertise in Melbourne in 1995, and he or she entered astronaut coaching in 1998. She traveled to Moscow, the place she acquired coaching in robotics and different ISS operational applied sciences whereas working with the Russian Federal Area Company (Roskosmos) and with crews getting ready for expeditions to the ISS.
On December 9, 2006, Williams flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery on the STS-116 mission to the ISS, the place she was a flight engineer for Expeditions 14 and 15. Throughout her keep on the space station, she made 4 space walks, totaling greater than 29 hours exterior the spacecraft, and spent a complete of greater than 195 days in area, each of which have been information for ladies in area. (She held the latter report till 2015, when Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti spent greater than 199 days in area.) She additionally participated within the Boston Marathon by working 42.2 km (26.2 miles) on the station’s treadmill. She was the second American astronaut of Indian heritage to enter area, after Kalpana Chawla, who died within the Columbia disaster. Williams landed at Edwards Air Pressure Base in California with the crew of STS-117 on June 22, 2007.
Williams flew to the ISS once more on July 15, 2012, as a part of the crew of Soyuz TMA-05M. She was a flight engineer on Expedition 32, and on September 16 she turned commander of Expedition 33. She made three more room walks, totaling greater than 21 hours, retaining her area stroll report with a complete time exterior the ISS between her two flights of greater than 50 hours. She additionally accomplished a triathlon in orbit through the use of a treadmill, a stationary bicycle, and a weightlifting machine to simulate the swimming portion of the race. Williams returned to Earth on November 11 after practically 127 days in area. Her two spaceflights mixed lasted greater than 321 days.
In 2015 Williams was chosen as one in every of 4 astronauts to make the primary take a look at flights in NASA’s Business Crew program, during which two new non-public crewed spacecraft, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, would take astronauts and provides to the ISS. She was chosen in 2022 for the primary crewed take a look at Starliner flight to the ISS, which launched on June 5, 2024, with Barry Wilmore as commander and Williams as pilot. Starliner docked on the ISS a day after its launch, and the flight was initially scheduled to final for about one week. Nevertheless, through the flight to the ISS, 5 thrusters failed, and helium leaks have been detected in its propulsion system. NASA delayed Starliner’s return to Earth till it was certain that the craft may reenter safely. Williams and Wilmore joined the ISS crew.
NASA determined in August 2024 that, due to security issues, the subsequent mission to the ISS, SpaceX Crew-9, would launch in September with two astronauts as a substitute of 4 and that Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth with the Crew-9 astronauts on their Dragon spacecraft in February 2025. The Starliner returned empty in September 2024.
