Sunita Williams, along with fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, spent over nine months in space for a mission that was originally supposed to last just eight days
Sunita Williams (File Pic/AFP)
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on March 18 after spending over nine months there, stated that India looks amazing from space during a press conference on Monday.
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According to PTI, responding to a question on how India looks from space, she said, “India is amazing. Every time we went over the Himalayas, and I'll tell you, Butch got some incredible pictures of the Himalayas. Just amazing!”
"And you can see, like I've described it before, just like this ripple that happened, obviously when the plates collided, and then as it flows down into India. It's many, many colours," she explained.
Further describing India’s geographical and cultural features, she said, “I think, when you come from the east, going into like Gujarat and Mumbai, the fishing fleet that's off the coast there gives you a little bit of a beacon that here we come, and then all throughout India, I think the impression I had was it was just like this network of lights from the bigger cities going down through the smaller cities. Just incredible to look at night as well as during the day, highlighted, of course, by the Himalayas, which is just incredible as a forefront going down into India.”
Is Sunita Williams planning to visit India?
Williams expressed eagerness to visit her “father’s home country” and praised India’s strides in space exploration.
“I hope, and I think for sure, I'm gonna be going back to my father's home country and visiting people and getting excited about the first, or not the first, but the Indian national who's going up on the Axiom Mission coming up, pretty awesome,” she said.
According to PTI, she made those remarks while referring to the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), a commercial astronaut mission to ISS that will include Mission Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, who will be the country’s second astronaut after former Indian Air Force officer Rakesh Sharma to go to space since 1984.
Commending this feat, Williams said, "They'll have a hometown hero there of their own that will be able to talk about how wonderful the International Space Station is from his perspective. But I hope I can meet up at some point in time, and we can share our experiences with as many people in India as possible, because it's a great country, another wonderful democracy that's trying to put its foot in the space countries, and we'd love to be part of that and help them along,” she said.
Sunita Williams’ India connection
The NASA astronaut’s father Deepak Pandya hailed from India and moved to the US in 1958. While she was born in Ohio, Jhulasan village in Gujarat is known as her father’s ancestral home.
Also Read: As Sunita Williams returns to Earth, this Gujarat village is happy; here's the connection
She was also awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, in 2008.
(With PTI inputs)
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