Sunita Williams is preparing for another expedition in 2012

Sunita Williams, the famous American-Indian astronaut, has been chosen for another space expedition. The 44 year old astronaut would take over as station commander at the International Space Station where she stayed from December 9, 2006 to June 22, 2007. The new expedition is set to launch in June 2012.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will join her this time on the Soyuz 31 flight to the space station.

Sunita Williams was born on September 19, 1965 to Deepak Pandya, a Gujarati father and Bonnie Pandya, Slovak mother. Her father is a famous neuroanatomist.

She graduated from Needham High School in Needham, Massachusetts, in 1983. In 1987, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physical science from the U.S. Naval Academy and Master of Science degree in Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology in 1995.

She was selected by NASA in June 1998 and started her training in August 1998. She received training in various aspects to prepare for T-38 flight training. She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15.

She holds the record of the longest spaceflight for female space traveler spending 195 days. Before Sunita, Kathryn Thornton, had the record of most spacewalks; three times.