Sunita Williams Is the Only Female Astronaut Chosen by NASA for History-Making Mission

 

NASA announced last week that Indian-Slovene American astronaut Sunita Williams has been selected to be on the first team of four astronauts to fly the next generation of commercial crew vehicles. Williams joins Eric Boe, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley as “space pioneers” in an effort to meet NASA’s goal of “sending humans farther into the solar system than ever before.”

From left to right: Douglas Hurley, Eric Boe, Robert Behnken and Sunita Williams - photo courtesy of blogs.nasa.gov
From left to right: Douglas Hurley, Eric Boe, Robert Behnken and Sunita Williams – photo courtesy of blogs.nasa.gov

“These distinguished, veteran astronauts are blazing a new trail, a trail that will one day land them in the history book and Americans on the surface of Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden in a blog post announcing the selection.

The commercial crew program seeks to send astronauts to deep space by the 2030s on privately built spacecrafts. The four astronauts will begin flight testing early 2017. They will work closely with Boeing and SpaceX to understand the designs and operations and help develop transportation systems to and from the International Space Station (ISS).

Photo courtesy of spaceflight.nasa.gov/

Williams, a U. S. Navy officer, received her commission in the Navy in May 1987. She became a helicopter pilot, logging more than 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircrafts. Williams was chosen for the astronaut program in 1998. She has since spent 322 days in space on two shuttle missions and holds the records for total spacewalks by a woman (seven) and the most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours and 40 minutes). Williams now ranks sixth on the all-time U.S. endurance list and second all-time for female astronauts.

Click on the link to find out more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and check out the Launching for America videos to meet the crew. Here’s the introduction video, complete with epic music:

Feature photo courtesy of NASA.

 

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