Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams returned to earth after a record 195-day stay in space as space shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Edwards Air Force Base in California today.The spacecraft landed at 0119 IST at Edwards in the Mojave Desert where it was diverted after poor weather at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral forced mission managers to skip three landing attempts there over the last 24 hours.
"Welcome back and congratulations on a great mission," NASA mission control said to the seven-member crew soon after the shuttle landed.
Soon after the touchdown, a Crew Transport Vehicle pulled up to the orbiter. It has beds and comfortable seats for the astronauts to receive medical checks immediately after returning to Earth.
"I will not call her Miss Universe. I will call her India's daughter," a beaming Deepak Pandya, father of Williams, said in Houston soon after her return to earth.
He said the entire family would be visiting India as soon as possible after NASA permits to travel.
Williams crossed the milestone for longest uninterrupted stay by a woman in space on Saturday last surpassing the 188-day, four-hour mark set by US astronaut Shannon Lucid in 1996 on a mission to the Russian Mir space station.
She had set off from Cape Canaveral in December nine last year on space shuttle Discovery for what was to become the longest space journey by a woman.
Although it is only her first space flight, Williams became the world's most experienced woman walker in space on February four with four excursions clocking over 29 hours and 17 minutes to top Kathy Thornton's 21-hour space walking record.
During her stay at the space station, Williams has worked with experiments across a wide variety of fields, including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth observation as well as education and technology demonstrations.
Some of these experiments give scientists critical insight into the effects of weightlessness on human bodies while others show ways to prevent effects already known about like muscle and bone loss.
In addition to rigorous exercise, Williams also collected and stored her blood while in space to add to an ongoing study on nutrition, another key element of living in space for long stretches of time.
The results of this study may impact nutritional requirements and food systems developed for future ventures in space.
Congratulation and salute from Ahmedabad,
