American astronaut presents gamocha to Assam

NASA astronaut Col Edward Michael Mike Fincke today presented a space gamocha to the people of Assam, his state-in-law. The space gamocha is like any other Assamese traditional towel, except for the fact that it had the distinction of traveling to space and bears the autographs of Fincke and his co-astronauts. Fincke presented it to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here during a public felicitation function of the NASA astronaut, who happens to be the son-in-law of an Assamese family. He had carried the towel during his latest space expedition from which he had returned in April after six months in the outer space, aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Fincke, who is on an extended tour of Assam and neighbouring Shillong, has been accorded state guest honour by the state and is scheduled to participate in interactions with students at several places during the visit. His wife, fellow engineer Renita Saikia and their three children are also visiting the state. Astronaut Fincke is a Colonel in the US Air Force and a veteran of two long-duration missions aboard the ISS. He served as the NASA science officer and flight engineer on Expedition 9 and spent six months (April 18 to October 23, 2004) aboard the ISS. He was also the Commander for Expedition 18 and spent six months (October 12, 2008, to April 8, 2009) in the outer space. Colonel Fincke has a total of 365 days, 21 hours and 32 minutes in space, and logged a total of 26 hours and 12 minutes of EVA time on six spacewalks. Fincke has been selected by NASA to go to space again for the third time in 2010 and this time he will go as a mission specialist.

-- (UNI) -- 02CA25.xml

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