Sunita Williams Begins Second Stay in Space

The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA carries the record setting American astronaut Sunita Williams and two others, docked with the International Space Station early Tuesday for a four month mission Known as "Expedition 32".

The two other astronauts accompanying Sunita Williams onboard are Russian Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide.  The trio docked the Soyuz TMA -05M spacecraft to the Rassavet module. The trio will join the current station residents Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight engineers Jow Acaba and Sergei Revin.

The crew took off successfully from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhastan .

"Unfortunately our mission is only four months - I wish it would be years and years and years," Williams said during a preflight briefing. "I'm really lucky to be flying with Yuri and Aki. I think we're going to have a great time."

This is the second space mission for Sunita willams and she holds the record of being the longest spaceflight 195 days for woman space travellers. She is the Flight engineer on the stations Expedition 32 crew, will take over as commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the space station. The crew is expected to return home in mid November.

The launch and docking of Expedition 32 coincides with the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first docking of an American spacecraft with a Russian spacecraft.

Currently, this Russian Soyuz family spacecraft remains the only means of transportation to the orb