Sunita
Williams (born Sunita Pandya Krishna; September 19, 1965) is an Indian
American astronaut and a United States Navy officer who holds the record
for longest space flight by a woman. She was assigned to the
International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and Expedition
15. In 2012, she served as a flight engineer on Expedition 32 and then
commander of Expedition 33. In addition
to holding the record for the longest space flight time among female
space travelers she holds the record for number of spacewalks for a
female, and most spacewalk time for a female. Williams first broke the
two spacewalk records for women space travellers—most number of
spacewalks, and most spacewalk time—during Expedition 14/15 in 2007, but
both records were surpassed by Peggy Whitson during Expedition 16.
Williams regained both records during her sixth spacewalk, on September
5, 2012, and currently has 50 hours and 40 minutes of spacewalk time
(seven walks).
