Sunita’s Space Sojourn: Up, up & away!

Shashank Chouhan

Last week, US space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to bring Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams back home after a six-month sojourn in space. Williams, who set a new world record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman, returns Thursday after NASA cleared space shuttle Atlantis` thermal protection system for re-entry into the Earth`s atmosphere.Not only is she the pride of all Indians but also an inspiration for young women across the globe. Here is a look at her space odyssey:

Heavenly dreams

Born September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio, Sunita Lyn Williams considers Needham, Massachusetts to be her hometown. Her parents, Dr. Deepak and Mrs. Bonnie Pandya, reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She is an inheritor of a rich heritage – a mix of Indian (her father is a Gujarati immigrant) and Yugoslavian genes, which made her listen to Indian spiritual leaders and also attend Roman Catholic religion classes at her mother`s church. In a NASA interview, Sunita revealed her love for the stars. “When I was five years old or so, I saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon and thought, ‘Wow --that’s cool.’ I mean, that’s what I would like to do. Subsequent to that, all the TV shows about going to space sort of set a bit, I think, in everybody’s head that, that would be a great career. I never really thought that would happen in my life.” Williams is married to Michael J. Williams, an FBI agent, and although they have no children, Labrador Retrievers and a crazy Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby have added their share of excitement to their lives. So much so, that her parents send her reports in space about what Gorby is upto. “I wish I could get Gorby with me,” Sunita said before launch. Look Ma, I am an Astronaut! Sunita received her commission as an ensign in the United States Navy from the United States Naval Academy in May 1987 after completing her BS in Physical Science from the US Naval Academy in 1987. Sunita was selected for the United States Naval Test Pilot School from where she graduated in 1993. She has logged over 2,770 flight hours on more than 30 different aircrafts. It was then that in a lecture about helicopters being used to land lunar rovers that Sunita’s mind gave her wings to fly on really long journeys – into outer space. In 1995 she acquired an M.S., Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology. NASA selected her for Astronaut Candidate Training in August 1998. ‘Wow, what else can I do?’ was what Sunita thought as she entered the hallowed halls of NASA. It was a dream come true but there were months of training, education and testing times before she could truly qualify to become an Astronaut. 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. Flight of fantasy On December 10, 2006, spaceshuttle Discovery lit up the night sky to begin a 12-day journey to the International Space Station (ISS) on a mission to install a new segment of the station`s spine-like truss and to rewire the ISS to increase its power supply, enabling the addition of more laboratory modules. It was the most complex shuttle flight ever attempted.

Along with Mission Specialist Sunita Williams, the shuttle carried Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Bob Curbeam, and Christer Fuglesang. The "Beep Beep" song performed by Louis Prima, played especially for astronaut Sunita Williams, woke up the Discovery shuttle crew on their first day in space. "Good morning to you Suni! (That’s what Sunita is fondly called) You need to rise and shine because today is the day that you say, `Goodbye shuttle and hello station,`" astronaut Shannon Lucid in Mission Control told Williams. She radioed back, "I can`t wait to see my new home." Aware of the excitement she has generated among Indians, Sunita, who has brought with her a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small statue of Lord Ganesh and a letter written in Hindi by her father, said in an interview with school students in India from ISS that she wanted the people of India to dream like her, for "if you belive in it, it will come true." "We can see the green on the fields, the red in the mountains ... and the snow. It is really beautiful," Sunita said, adding that the space crew had the luxury of flying over India a number of times. Its a Man’s job If you think that gazing at the stars is all what astronauts do, take a look at the life of Sunita at ISS for one day. Following are excerpts from her journal that she wrote from up above: Working out -

40 minutes biking

4 miles running

25 minutes biking

45 minutes biking, 1.5 miles run/walk

6 miles running Science stuff

EMCH (Elastic Memory Composite Hinge). Composite material hinge. It was the LAST couple tests of this payload. Hopefully they will get the "hinges" back to Earth for analysis. This material may have applications for future aircraft and helicopters as well.

MELFI preps to get ready to unload my blood and urine samples for the ride home with me! Maintenance Stuff

EMU battery maintenance - charge/discharge cycle. Got new batteries for upcoming US spacewalks on next Shuttle mission!

Started packing up equipment that will come home with the next Shuttle mission.

Water samples from our new water supply, Gorby - the fat Progress. Felt like the pool guy checking the water!... Phew! The list didn’t end there but considering half of it went above my head…. But here’s what her mission activities encompassed from a broad view- Sunita and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria completed the last of the internal assembly tasks for the startup later this year of the new Oxygen Generation System in the Destiny laboratory. The astronauts installed sound-deadening equipment and an electrical cable and reconnected a wastewater hose for the hardware delivered last summer on space shuttle mission STS-121. Sunita and Lopez-Alegria also performed scientific experiments, conducting another session with the Anomalous Long-Term Effects in Astronauts` Central Nervous System to measure exposure to cosmic radiation. She along with commander Lopez-Alegria also increased the bandwidth on the International Space Station`s computer network. During inspection, Higginbotham and Sunita Williams used the station`s 57-foot camera-equipped robotic arm to scan four reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the shuttle`s wing. They successfully finished rewiring the orbital outpost from a temporary power source to a permanent one. During her stay on orbit, Williams has worked with experiments across a wide variety of fields, including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth observation as well as education and technology demonstrations. The results of this study may impact nutritional requirements and food systems developed for future ventures in space. “Her mission has been critically important to our overall space program,” said NASA Astronaut Eileen Collins, another female pioneer in spaceflight. Records on-board

Williams took the all-time title for the longest spaceflight by a female astronaut as she passed the 188-day, four-hour mark in Earth orbit. Williams` spaceflight surpassed that of fellow NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid, who spent just over 188 days in orbit during a 1996 mission to Russia`s Mir Space Station. "It`s just being in the right place at the right time," Williams told Mission Control about the record. "It`s an honor to be up here."

Although this is only her first spaceflight, Williams also became the record-holder for most hours outside a spacecraft by a female by completing four spacewalks during Expedition 14 with a total time of 29 hours, 17 minutes. Asked about her spacewalking record, the NASA flight engineer said, `I believe there is a generation of explorers behind me who are going to shatter my record. There will be manned missions to the moon and even Mars in the coming years.`

The astronaut can also call herself Miss Fitness. . She didn`t let being more than 300 km above Earth slow her down - instead she ran a marathon. Williams completed the Boston Marathon on a treadmill on board the International Space Station. Williams, who qualified for the marathon when she ran a 3:29:57 in the Houston Marathon last year, clocked four hours and 24 minutes. On why she ran the Marathon, Williams said: "I would like to encourage kids to start making physical fitness part of their daily lives. I thought a big goal like a marathon would help get this message out there." Hair there, up there Clearly her long hair was not fun in zero gravity. Even we could see how it always floated in the air whenever she appeared in any footage from ISS. Well Sunita got rid of the mess by letting a fellow astronaut cut a bit of it. But all for a cause – she sent her ponytail to the group Locks of Love. Her hair will be used to make wigs for children who have lost their hair during chemotherapy. Although a lover of food – both Indian and American – Sunita had to stand floating sauce and flying rice whenever she sat to eat. No wonder her favorite time on-board was dinner time! NASA took care of her tastes and allowed her a box of ‘samosas’ among other eatables like paneer, choley etc that she generously shared with her crew mates. Return of the Queen Sunita is handing her ISS flight engineer duties over to NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson, who is making his first spaceflight with the STS-117 and Expedition 15 missions and had some fast lessons while the station crew wrangled with computer issues this week. Suni, as she likes to be called, is returning home aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which is to land at NASA`s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Thursday. In honour of her record stint in space -- 188 days and four hours to be precise -- her colleagues at NASA`s Johnson Space Centre will wear red. Red is the colour of her favourite baseball team, Boston`s Red Sox. The day will also be called ‘Sunita William’s Day’. Barring her husband Michael Williams, an FBI agent, no one else is allowed to travel to the landing area in Florida or California, where Atlantis may land, depending on the weather on the day she returns. “Exploration isn’t necessary or always logical. It’s something that comes from inside each and every one of us,” astronaut Sunita Williams said in an emotional farewell to the International Space Station, where she has spent the past 191 days. "Have a good, safe landing. Until we see you again," station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin said before the hatches were closed. Sunita then played a recording of James Blunt’s ‘Goodbye My Lover,” followed by the Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive,’ dedicated to Clay Anderson. Sunita’s is a story of great adventure and inspiration. What really goes on in her mind about her Indian roots will be known only after she touches down. Till then, we can only wait and wonder at the heights women have achieved in the cosmic scene.