"It is beautiful to see the countryside. There are so many colours. I think I have mentioned that before how colourful it is being in India. From the space, it is the same," she said.
Discovery carries enough supplies to stay in orbit till Saturday, but NASA flight rules call for reserving that day in case of an unanticipated orbiter systems glitch or malfunction.
The International Space Station orbits the earth 16 times in a day.
Despite doubts about the take-off due to poor weather forecast and a two-hour delay before tanking operations, Discovery and its crew of seven lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Houston at 7:17 am IST.
Mainstream American newspapers, many of which had been sceptical of India's space mission and sometimes even made fun of it through cartoons, noted the great Indian achievement.
The six-wheeled solar-powered rover named Zhurong, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, slowly trundled off a ramp on the lander to hit the red, sandy soil of Mars, starting its journey to explore the fourth planet from the Sun.
Williams has been kept up to date on the developments since the February 26 hail storm and is taking the uncertainty over her return to Earth in stride.
Williams, who had carried a packet of samosas with her when she shot into space on December 11, 2006, said she would like to have more of the spicy snacks.
Samosas from back home are remembered with longing.
Trained to remain aboard the space station until July, Williams will also join space station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria for three spacewalks early in 2007.
Only seven other US women and a single Russian woman have participated in the 281 spacewalks taken since 1965.
Atlantis astronauts are gearing up to check the tail section of their spacecraft for a minor tear in the heat shield while they prepare for a spacewalk that was postponed by 24 hours because of a German crew member's illness.
"This warming trend is alarming," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
'A wrinkle in the dress,' is what the Himalayas looked like for Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams as she looked down on Earth during her six-month-long stay in the International Space Station.
Total spacewalking time for Sunday's walk was 7 hours, 11 minutes. And, now they are all set to enjoy the spectacular Super Bowl football game between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts.
The first of a record four spacewalks planned during the next month is scheduled to begin 0900 hours CST (2030 hours IST) on Wednesday.
Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, orbiting the Earth, will marry his earthbound American sweetheart on Sunday.
Williams said her long stay in space would definitely help her face the rigours of the long journey to Mars.
The day she returns is being christened Sunita Williams Day at NASA.
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who plans to run the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon on board the International Space Station on April 16, finds it a challenging exercise.
41-year-old Sunita, who became the second woman of Indian descent to venture into space after Kalpan Chawla, said she was all "excited" to go out and check the planet.
'Russia is aiming at demoralising Ukraine as a nation.' 'They want to bomb the infrastructure, the electric stations so that regular citizens will not to be able to live, to cook, to give comfort to their kids.'
Students of the Asom Jatiya Vidyalaya in Guwahati on Wednesday had a memorable telephonic conversation with Edward Michael Fincke, the commander of the International Space Station, which is located 350 kilometers above the earth's surface.Fincke fielded questions ranging from his daily schedule at the ISS to his research work. He gave the enthusiastic students several insights into the food habits and water management at the zero gravity environment.
However, much is at stake for today's P6 solar array retraction. It is not expected to be a simple process. Since ISS went into orbit in 1998, it has been running on a temporary electrical system.
During the six-hour, 29-minute spacewalk on Sunday, mission specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson successfully completed all the tasks assigned to them, including the activation of the ISS' new truss segment.
The Borisoglebsk also launched a successful ballistic missile test on Saturday, hitting a target on Kamchatka, the Defence Ministry said.
Finally after their fourth unscheduled spacewalk, Discovery astronauts have successfully retracted a stubborn solar panel on the International Space Station.
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams is all set for an unscheduled fourth spacewalk along with other members of the Discovery crew on Monday to retract the P6 port solar array on the International Space Station.
"Thanks for flying @SpaceX." Current Location: Planet Earth. A 2:48pm ET, @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug splashed down, marking the first splashdown of an American crew spacecraft in 45 years. #LaunchAmerica," NASA said in a tweet earlier.
A Rs 7,056 crore outer harbour project by VO Chidambaranar (VOC) Port in Tuticorin is garnering interest from domestic and global majors in the sector, such as Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Singapore's PSA International, Dutch major Van Oord, JM Baxi, and JSW, among others, according to sources close to the development. The project aims to capitalise on the newfound investor interest in the region, spurred by mega investments such as the Rs 16,000 crore electric vehicle manufacturing unit by Vietnamese major VinFast, the Indian Space Research Organisation's second spaceport in Tamil Nadu's Kulasekarapattinam, and Singapore's Sembcorp's Rs 36,238 crore investment in renewable energy.
The cushioned yet rugged Ultraboost, which can clock more miles than most pairs without showing signs of weakness, has been tweaked to perform even better.
The rover, Zhurong, named after a god of fire and war in Chinese mythology, landed at the pre-selected area in Utopia Planitia on Mars, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The Mars Orbiter Mission may have sparked a debate on 'space race' between India and China, but former ISRO boss G Madhavan Nair says Beijing has already surged forward and is on course to have an upper hand in the field globally.
The Met department blamed the malfunctioning of sensors kept at the Automated Weather Station for the gaffe.
Catch up on all the big news of the week gone by, in images.
Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, according to the Reuters report, said it had lost contact with the spacecraft shortly after a problem occurred as it was shunted into pre-landing orbit on Saturday.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Only a few thousand chargers dot the Indian landscape, some in working condition, others not, with some held hostage to the power supply vagaries of local utilities, reports S Dinakar.
'ISRO facilities are very expensive and any damage caused by these start-ups can create havoc to our space programme.'
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