Bangalore: Sunita Williams will be carrying with her a copy of the English translation of Upanishads on her six month mission to space.

Deepak Pandya, Sunita’s father suggested her to take a copy of Upanishads with her, so that she gets a better understanding of her Indian roots.

"The last time she went into space, I had given her a copy of the Bhagavad Gita," Pandya told Times of India. "She was full of questions when she came back. She wanted to know why it became necessary for Krishna to narrate the Gita, what were its eternal teachings, was it not possible to gain similar knowledge from other works, and many such questions. I feel that she will find some of the answers in the Upanishads."

Pandya is a devotee of Lord Shiva and he hopes that his daughter will accomplish a successful space journey with the help of Upanishads.

"All the same, we don't discuss space when she calls amid her preparations," Pandya adds. "We have normal father-daughter conversations."

Williams is currently making final preparations for a July 14 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to a NASA announcement.

She will be a flight engineer on the station's Expedition 32 with Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. On reaching the space station she will take over as commander of Expedition 33.