Another Indian American astronaut, Sunita Williams, is all set to follow Kalpana Chawla into space.
WASHINGTON: Another Indian American astronaut, Sunita Williams, is all set to follow Kalpana Chawla into space three years after the latter along with six other crewmembers perished in the ill-fated Columbia space mission.
Mission specialist Williams and six other crewmembers of the space shuttle Discovery arrived on Monday afternoon at National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to begin a final round of pre-launch training.
During the four-day terminal countdown demonstration test, the astronauts will be fitted for their orange launch and entry suits, practice an emergency egress from the launch pad, and drive the M-113 armoured personnel carrier, according to NASA.
The training schedule is highlighted by a launch dress rehearsal in which the fully suited crew participates in a simulated countdown.
Discovery arrived at Launch Pad 39B on November 9 following an overnight move from the Vehicle Assembly Building. The P5 integrated truss segment and SPACEHAB module were installed in the orbiter's payload bay on Saturday.
The STS-116 mission is the 20th to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The launch window opens December 7.
Led by Commander Mark Polansky, the other crewmembers are pilot William Oefelein and mission specialists Joan Higginbotham, Nicholas Patrick, Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang.
Williams, 41, who is going to stay in space for about six months, will be taking the place of German astronaut Thomas Reiter at the International Space Station as a flight engineer.
As the daughter of an Indian immigrant who had to compete for opportunities, Williams had not been taught to throw in the towel without a fight.
"My parents had always raised me to, if there's something you want, just try for it. Or else you're cutting yourself off. Just do it. Go for it," she says in an in-house NASA interview.
She was raised in Needham, Massachusetts, where parents, Deepak and Bonnie Pandya are settled. Her husband, Michael J. Williams, is a Federal Police Officer in Oregon. The two have been married for over 16 years, and both flew helicopters in the early days of their career.
At the International Space Station, Williams will join Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who arrived at the station in September, and then stay on as part of the Expedition 15 mission.
Williams, who graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1987 and was attached to the Naval Aviation Training Command, has logged over 2,770 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.
NASA inducted her into its astronaut programme in 1998.
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