"Orbiting Legends: Sunita Williams’ Cosmic Odyssey"

Image courtesy: Viral Bhayani

Sunita Williams, the Indian-American astronaut. Sunita Lyn Williams (born September 19, 1965) is a renowned NASA astronaut, retired U.S. Navy officer, and a record-setting spacewalker. She was born in Euclid, Ohio, to an Indian-American father, Deepak Pandya, and a Slovene-American mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, and grew up in Needham, Massachusetts.

• Williams has had an extraordinary career in space exploration. She was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and has completed three missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Her first mission was in 2006-2007 as part of Expeditions 14 and 15, where she spent over 195 days in space and set a then-record for women with four spacewalks totaling over 29 hours. Her second mission, Expeditions 32 and 33 in 2012, saw her serve as ISS commander, during which she completed three more spacewalks and accumulated a total of 321 days in space across her first two flights. Notably, she became the first person to run a marathon in space (the Boston Marathon in 2007) and later completed a triathlon in orbit in 2012 using specialized equipmen

  
  

• Her most recent mission began on June 5, 2024, when she launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for its first crewed flight, the Crew Flight Test, alongside astronaut Butch Wilmore. Originally planned as an eight-day mission, technical issues with the Starliner—including helium leaks and propulsion system malfunctions—extended their stay on the ISS.

  
  

• After the uncrewed Starliner returned to Earth in September 2024, Williams and Wilmore joined Expedition 71/72 as crew members. Williams took command of the ISS for the second time in September 2024, handing over the role to Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin on March 7, 2025. After nearly nine months in space, they returned to Earth on March 18, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of NASA’s Crew-9 mission, landing safely in the Gulf of Mexico off Tallahassee, Florida.

• As of her return, Williams has logged 608 days in space across her three missions and completed nine spacewalks totaling 62 hours and 6 minutes, making her the woman with the most spacewalk time and the fourth most experienced spacewalker overall. Her career also includes over 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft types from her time as a naval aviator and test pilot before joining NASA.