Boeing Starliner astronaut Sunita Williams has already brought samosas and cultural items into space with her

Sunita WilliamsAn Indian-American NASA astronaut aboard the Boeing Starliner Wednesday morning is known for bringing items representing his culture into space.

Williams, 58, was part of the first crewed launch of the Starliner capsule to the International Space Station with fellow astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore. Williams, a veteran of two other space missions, previously told reporters that she brings a few essential items, including sacred texts from the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita and, of course, samosas.

“I really appreciate my Indian heritage and was happy to be able to bring part of it with me into space,” Williams said during a press conference in 2013 at the National Science Center in Delhi, before referencing the elephant-headed Hindu god. “Ganesh was always at my house. Everywhere I’ve lived I’ve had Ganesh, so he had to come with me to space, of course. And Indian food – you can never get enough of Indian food… so I had to make sure I had some samosas with me in the space. Other types of Indian food we definitely eat there too.”

Williams, whose father is Indian and mother is of Slovenian descent, has been open about the importance of her heritage. During Expedition 32/33 in 2012, she also sent a greeting from space during Diwalithe Hindu festival of lights.

NASA selected Williams as an astronaut in 1998. She spent a total of 322 days and performed seven spacewalks in her two extended missions in space. She once held the record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut, but it has since been broken by Peggy Whitson.

The latest launch made Williams the first woman to test an orbital spacecraft. The historic test flight — the third attempt after repeated delays — could pave the way for routine flights between Boeing’s Starliner capsule and NASA. Bonnie Pandya, Williams’ mother, told NBC News hours before takeoff that her daughter was in good spirits and “very happy to go.”

Minutes before launch, Williams radioed a message to mission control.

“Come on, Calypso,” she said, referring to the name of the Starliner capsule. “Take us to space and back.”

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with