Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams was honoured as Grand Marshal of the Veterans Day Parade, which pays tribute to former military members.
Before joining the space agency, she served as a test pilot, subsequently undertaking three missions spanning a cumulative 608 days in orbit. During her career, she established a record for the most spacewalks by a woman, completing nine spacewalks totalling 62 hours. The prolonged stay stemmed from persistent technical problems with the spacecraft, ultimately requiring a rescue mission by a SpaceX Crew-9 vehicle to bring her and fellow stranded astronaut Butch Wilmore back home.
Born to Deepak Pandya, a neuroanatomist, and Ursuline Pandya, who is of Slovenian heritage, Williams previously made headlines when a scheduled eight-day expedition to the orbital laboratory during the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule abruptly transformed into an extended nine-month odyssey.
