The astronaut, who will take over as the commander of the International Space Station [ Images ], says she is not nervous but 'psyched'. Suman Guha Mozumder reports <\/p>\n
Astronaut Sunita Williams [ Images ], who holds the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman after 195 days spent in space in the year 2006, is set to revisit the International Space Station. <\/p>\n
And this time Williams is going to be the commander of the ISS after the existing crew comes back two months after she and her fellow astronauts reach. <\/p>\n
July 14, Williams will launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where she went last month for pre-flight training. Her mother Bony Pandya -- who always believed her daughter Suni (as Williams is to friends and family) \"would become somebody someday\" but could never imagine her becoming an astronaut -- also left last week for Kazakhstan for 10 days to meet with her daughter. <\/p>\n
\"Like my sister, we are all very excited about Suni's space journey,\" Williams's sister Dina Pandya told rediff.com. <\/p>\n
Williams will launch for the ISS as flight engineer at 9.40 pm Central Daylight Time July 14 as part of Expedition 32. After the existing three crew members at the ISS leave in September, she will become commander of Expedition 33, which will return a week after the presidential election in November. <\/p>\n
Williams will launch into space with flight engineers Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan [ Images ] Aerospace Exploration Agency. <\/p>\n
\"This time Williams is actually going to spend quite some time again on the space station, and she'll be doing a mixed bag of scientific research,\" Jay Bolden of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center told rediff.com. \"There are about 200 different experiments she is slated to do. Besides, she'll also be doing some repair work on the space station, and possibly do a couple of space walks as well. She'll be using this opportunity to connect with a bunch of students. She'll be doing a lot of experiments, and talk to the students about these. She'll also be doing medical research and some biology experiments as well.\" <\/p>\n
From space, Williams will be talking students, mainly from elementary, middle, and high schools, when schools start in the fall. <\/p>\n
\"She'll be talking to them pretty much all throughout the country,\" Bolden said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Sunita Williams heads back to space<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The astronaut, who will take over as the commander of the International Space Station [ Images ], says she is not nervous but 'psyched'. Suman Guha Mozumder reports Astronaut Sunita Williams [ Images ], who holds the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman after 195 days spent in space in the year 2006, is set to revisit the International Space Station. And this time Williams is going to be the commander of the ISS after the existing crew comes back two months after she and her fellow astronauts reach Continue reading