June 17, 2007	Sunday	Jumadi-us-Sani 01, 1428

WASHINGTON, June 16: A US astronaut of Indian heritage made history early on Saturday when she set a new record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman.

At 1:47 am (0547 GMT), International Space Station (ISS) engineer Suni Williams surpassed the 188-day, four-hour mark set by her compatriot Shannon Lucid in 1996, according to US space officials.

It was not the first record set by Williams, who began her space journey on last December 10.

Earlier this year, she logged 29 hours and 17 minutes in four space walks, eclipsing the record held by astronaut Kathryn Thornton for most spacewalk time by a woman.

And last April, she became the first astronaut to run a marathon in orbit, finishing it in four hours and 24 minutes.

A former US Navy test pilot, Williams was deployed to the Gulf during the 1991 Gulf War fought to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

Meanwhile, on Friday, astronauts fixed a tear in the shuttle Atlantis’s heat shield and repaired two main computers at the International Space Station after an unprecedented systems breakdown that lasted 48 hours, a NASA spokeswoman said.

“For now it’s working,” NASA spokeswoman Brandy Dean told the news agency. “This is good news. It’s very encouraging.” Astronauts used a jumper cable to bypass a faulty power switch, NASA said on its website. The computers will run overnight for testing in the morning.

Russian flight controllers blamed the glitch on installation of the ISS’ new solar panels, but the head of the Russian space operator RKK Energia said he did not blame the visiting crew for the problem.

“This is just a coincidence,” Nikolai Sevastyanov said.—AFP