Person of the Week: Sunita Williams

June 22, 2007 — -- When the Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down safely today, one of its passengers was the record-setting female astronaut Sunita Williams.

During the mission, she managed to set a new endurance record for women -- logging 194 days in orbit after six months on the International Space Station -- and still took time out for charity.

In December she had her long hair cut so she could donate her locks to help those who have lost their hair while fighting an illness.

Long hair is not very practical in space anyway, where she also set the world record for a female astronaut on spacewalks, totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes.

Williams, 41, proved she could not only walk in space but run. When her sister Dina Pandya ran the Boston Marathon April 16, Williams ran her own marathon in space using a treadmill suspended by gyroscopes to minimize any impact of pounding feet on the space station.

"I was thinking about her. If she's going through this, I can do it," Pandya said.

Despite her success in space, Williams said she didn't immediately get her dream job in flight.

"I tell little girls about the story. I started flight school when 'Top Gun' came out, so of course everybody wanted to fly jets," she told ABC News earlier in the week. "That was the cool thing to do, and I put that down as my first choice but got helicopters."

But she said in the end it worked out. "You just sort of take what you get," she said. "Maybe you don't get the first thing that you want. If you are good at what you do and you try hard, some things sort of fall into place," she said.

After flying helicopters for the Navy during the first Gulf War, Commander Sunita Williams was selected to train as an astronaut.

Praying for a Safe Return

As the Atlantis finished its 14-day trip, Williams had an international cheering squad awaiting her safe return.

Williams has a Slovenian mother and an Indian father who had hundreds of people praying in India. "In my hometown, for seven days everyone is praying," her father, Deepak Pandya, said.

Also awaiting her return -- her now famed pet Jack Russell terrier Gorby. Williams used his image to keep crewmates' spirits high during her 188-day mission, as they never knew when his photo would pop up in a different spot on the space station.

"I'd send her pictures almost daily of what he's doing," Pandya said.

Now, Williams is gearing up to take care of him, and said, "I should be able to take him for a walk on the beach by Sunday morning, I think."

"The dog is a naughty little terrier … but she loves him," her father added.

Her family caught a glimpse of Williams this week, when the shuttle and International Space Station did a flyby over Earth.

"I've been trying to see this for so many months now," her sister said.

When the shuttle was seen in the night sky, Pandya exclaimed "Woooh, there she is!" and pointed the space craft out to Williams' beloved pet. "Gorby, Look! Sunni is right there right above us."

Now that she's back on the ground, Williams' dreams don't end. What she really wants to do next is fly to the moon.

"I think all of us have that in the back of our mind," she said. "All of us have seen the Apollo guys walk on the moon and think, 'Wow, that would be neat, and we'd love to do it.'"

And if she does, it won't surprise us.