Sunita Williams in Mumbai next week

Mangalore Today /TOI

MUMBAI,  March 25, 2013: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams (47), who holds the record for the longest space flight by a woman astronaut, has a date with Mumbai after a gap of six years. She will be interacting with school students on April 3 and 4.

 

Williams will visit a working women’s hostel managed by the Indian Council of Social Welfare in Chembur and talk to the hostelites on April 3. Council secretary-general, Bhupesh Babu, told TOI on Sunday that apart from the hostelites, students from various schools in Chembur will also be invited to meet Williams.

 

On April 4, the astronaut will have another session with school children at the Nehru Science Centre in Worli. Centre director, S Khened, said that invitations have been sent to about 100 schools and 50-60 are expected to attend the programme. "The capacity of our auditorium is 270, so we have restricted the number of entries from each school to five, including the teacher," he said, while pointing out that a number of municipal schools have been requested to send students. The programme is expected to begin around 10.30am.

In October 2007, Williams visited IIT-Bombay, where she gave a presentation to a packed auditorium. Williams has flown to the 17-member International Space Station twice— between December 9, 2006, and June 22, 2007 and from July 15, 2012, to November 19,2012. She has clocked a total of 50 hours and 40 minutes of spacewalk time.