Robert Pearlman tells BoingBoing, "It's not uncommon for an astronaut to cut her hair in space, but for Expedition 14 flight engineer Sunita Williams, who arrived on the International Space Station last week, her hair cut was anything but for a common cause." Here's a snip from Robert's post at collectspace.com:
They appear as two line items in a final transfer list between the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station: items 811 and 811.1. Uplinked to the shuttle crew as a final preparation for the undocking of Discovery from the station on Tuesday, the list identifies 811 as Suni Williams, FE-2, and 811.1 as a ponytail.Sunita 'Suni' Williams is the latest member of the station crew, having arrived with Discovery on December 11. Her title aboard the ISS is Flight Engineer-2 (FE-2). The ponytail is hers.
"Remove ponytail from 811 prior to transfer of 811" reads the resupply transfer list. "Report final stowage location."
"We believe 811.1 has been completed, please confirm," ground controllers wrote to the crew elsewhere in the list.
Williams, who arrived at the outpost last week with long flowing – and floating – hair, arranged to have her locks cut last Sunday and the clippings stowed on Discovery for a future hairpiece to be donated to a patient suffering from long-term medical hair loss.
