Sunita Williams.

Date of birth: September 19, 1965
Former International Space Station (ISS) commander and retired U.S. Navy officer Sunita “Suni” Williams is an Indian-American astronaut. She is one of the most experienced astronauts, having completed nine spacewalks—the second-most by a woman—and spent 62 hours and 6 minutes outside the spacecraft. As of right now, she is the woman who has completed the most hours on a spacewalk.
Williams served as a crew member on Expeditions 14 and 15 aboard the ISS. She was Expedition 32’s flight engineer in 2012 and Expedition 33’s commander after that.

Early Life.
Although Sunita Williams was born in Euclid, Ohio, she considers her hometown to be Needham, Massachusetts. Her mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya (née Zaloker), was Slovenian-American, and her father, Dr. Deepak Pandya, was an Indian-American neuroanatomist from Mehsana, Gujarat. The place where her parents resided was Falmouth, Massachusetts. Out of her three siblings, she is the youngest. Her sister, Dina Annad, is three years older than her brother, Jay Thomas, who is four years older.
Her mother is from Slovenia, and her father is from Jhulsan, Gujarat, India.
Williams launched a Carniolan sausage, a samosa, and a Slovenian flag into space to commemorate her Indian and Slovenian ancestry. While “Sončka” is her Slovenian name, “Suni” is her American one.
She received a Bachelor of Science in Physical Science from the US Naval Academy in 1987, a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1995, and a high school diploma from Needham High School in 1983.

Military Career.
Williams was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy in May 1987. She was appointed as a Basic Diving Officer after six months of service with the Naval Coastal Systems Command.
She reported to the Naval Air Training Command in July 1989 after receiving her Naval Aviator designation. She was assigned to the Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 (HC-8), headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, following her first training aboard the H-46 Sea Knight. She served with this squadron in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Mediterranean Sea during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort.
In September 1992, she oversaw an H-46 detachment during Hurricane Andrew rescue operations in Miami, Florida. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in December 1993 and was assigned as an H-46 Project Officer and V-22 Chase Pilot.
Helicopters such the SH-60B/F, UH-1, AH-1W, SH-2, VH-3, H-46, CH-53, and H-57 were among several that Williams tested. At the Naval Test Pilot School, she eventually rose to the position of Safety Officer and teacher, flying UH-60, OH-58, and OH-6 helicopters.
She was then sent to the USS Saipan, where she worked as an assistant air boss and aircraft handler until June 1998. At this time, NASA selected her for the astronaut program.
At the end of her career, Williams had flown more than 30 different aircraft for more than 3,000 hours. She departed the U.S. Navy in 2017.

NASA Career.
sunita Williams began astronaut training at the Johnson Space Center in August 1998. STS-116 mission On December 9, 2006, Williams launched to the ISS on Space Shuttle Discovery as part of STS-116, joining the Expedition 14 crew. She later joined Expedition 15 in April 2007 after the Russian crew was replaced. On April 16, 2007, sunita Williams became the first person to run a marathon in space when he completed the Boston Marathon aboard the ISS in 4 hours and 24 minutes. She broke the previous record for the greatest spacewalk duration by a woman during her mission, doing four spacewalks and spending 29 hours and 17 minutes outside the ISS. Later on, though, Peggy Whitson beat her own record with 32 hours and 36 minutes.
sunita Williams set a record for the longest spaceflight by a woman at the time, spending 195 days in space before returning to Earth on June 22, 2007, aboard STS-117.

Expeditions 32 & 33.
In addition to becoming the first person to complete a triathlon in space in September 2012—the same month as the Earthly Nautica Malibu Triathlon—Williams launched Soyuz TMA-05M from Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 15, 2012, and joined Expedition 32 by docking with the ISS on July 17. She also succeeded Gennady Padalka as the ISS’s second female commander on September 17, 2012. She finished the race in 1 hour, 48 minutes, and 33 seconds using a stationary bike and treadmill.

Boeing Starliner Incident & Return to Earth.
In 2024, sunita Williams returned to space during the first crewed voyage of the Boeing Starliner, known as the Crew voyage Test. Despite the initial eight-day mission timeline,sunita Williams and her coworker Butch Wilmore were left trapped on the ISS for over nine months due to technical issues such as helium leaks and propulsion difficulties.
aboard March 18, 2025, she safely returned to Earth by landing aboard SpaceX Crew-9 in Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico.
By January 2025, sunita Williams completed nine spacewalks for a total of 62 hours and 6 minutes, making her the fourth most experienced astronaut in terms of spacewalk time and the record holder for the most spacewalk hours by a woman.

Personal Life.
sunita Williams has been married to Michael J. sunita Williams, a US Federal Marshal, for almost 20 years. The couple flew helicopters together early in their careers. They live in the suburbs of Houston, Texas.
She costarred with Gorby, a Jack Russell Terrier, on the 2010 season of National Geographic’s “Dog Whisperer” show.
In 2012, she expressed her desire to adopt a girl from Ahmedabad, India.
sunita Williams practices Hinduism. During her space missions, she transported the Bhagavad Gita, an Om sign, and a copy of the Upanishads to the ISS.
When she visited Sabarmati Ashram and her ancestral village of Jhulsan in 2007, she became the first non-Indian citizen to receive the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award. She also had a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while she was there.