NASA
astronaut Sunita Williams is readapting to life on Earth after a record-setting
mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that raised the bar for female
spaceflyers.
Williams, 41,
spent nearly 195 days - a world
record for female astronauts - in space and served on two ISS crews during
her mission to the orbital laboratory. She returned
to Earth on June 22 alongside NASA's STS-117 astronaut crew aboard shuttle
Atlantis after its successful construction flight to the ISS.
"I
think I'm fit as a fiddle," Williams told reporters of her readaptation to
gravity's pull during a recent series of NASA TV interviews, adding that her
arms and legs did feel a bit heavy at first. "The first 24 hours to 48 hours
was a little tough coming back and feeling the weight of gravity."
Williams
said she spent her first week back on Earth exercising to rebuild the muscle mass
she lost during the more than six months of weightlessness. She was also eager
to spend time with her family, husband Michael and beloved Jack Russell terrier
Gorby, whom the astronaut mentioned often during her spaceflight.
"I had
a great reunion with them," Williams said of her return home to Houston on
June 23. "That night we had a big pizza, which is something that I was
looking forward to."
A native of
Needham, Massachusetts and a commander in the U.S. Navy, Williams first launched
into space in December 2006 as part of the shuttle Discovery's
STS-116 astronaut crew. But unlike her shuttle crewmates, Williams stayed behind
to join its then-Expedition 14 crew. She stayed aboard the station again in
April, as the orbital laboratory changed over to its Expedition 15 crew, before
returning to Earth last month.
"It's
a blast, it's so much fun and I'm going to miss it," Williams said life
aboard the ISS, where weightlessness felt like combination of flying and
swimming. "It's a completely different human experience."
At just
over six months in length, Williams' flight set a new endurance record as the
longest duration spaceflight by a female astronaut, though she has repeatedly
said she was just in the right place at the right time.
The
previous record of just over 188 days was held by fellow NASA astronaut Shannon
Lucid, who set that benchmark during a 1996 mission to Russia's Space Station
Mir. NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, Williams' Expedition 14 commander,
holds the overall U.S. title for longest spaceflight with 215 days, though the
world record of 438 days rests firmly in the hands of Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov
after his 1994-1995 flight.
Williams
also ran
the Boston marathon from space and performed four spacewalks dedicated to
overhauling the station's power and cooling systems during her mission. With 29
hours and 17 minutes of spacewalking time, she also holds the title of most
experienced female spacewalker.
"Without
a doubt, the spacewalks were just incredible," Williams said. "When you're
outside and you're in your own spacecraft, your spacesuit, and the only thing
between you and space is your visor. That is pretty spectacular and you can
look out into the universe, then back at our planet."
Near the
end of the spaceflight, while Atlantis and its STS-117 crew were docked at the
ISS, Williams also helped her Expedition 15 crewmates Fyodor Yurchikhin and
Oleg Kotov work through a major
computer systems glitch in the station's Russian segment. The successful
repair, she said during the mission, is proof that space is a challenging and
hostile environment for human exploration.
"We
take spaceflight for granted and it's still pretty darned dangerous,"
Williams told reporters during the joint mission, adding that the station is a
ship of science and not merely a space tourist destination. "It's a serious
place and we're doing serious business and serious science up here."
While
Atlantis' successful landing ended the first career spaceflight for Williams,
she hopes it won't be her last. But, she said, there are many other astronauts
still in line for NASA's remaining shuttle flights to complete the ISS before
the orbiter fleet is retired in 2010.
"It's
just such a wonderful place to live and work," Williams said of the ISS after
the spaceflight. "I really do hope to either go back to the space station
or...who knows, the Crew Exploration Vehicle hopefully will be going back to the
Moon before long."
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