CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, December 11, 2006: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams blasted into space Sunday carrying a Lord Ganesha Deity, the Bhagavad Gita and a packet of samosas, in addition to what the well traveled astronaut packs for a six-month stint on the International Space Station. In addition to Sunita, the shuttle Discovery is carrying Sweden’s first astronaut, Christer Fuglesang, pilot William Oefelein, Flight engineer Robert Curbeam and mission specialists Nicholas Patrick and Joan Higginbotham. Sunita was a Navy test pilot and diver before joining the astronaut program. Her father is an Indian-born doctor and her mother a homemaker of Yugoslav descent.
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