Williams made these remarks during a press conference on Monday. She was responding to a question on how India looked from space when she was in the International Space Station and on the possibility of her collaborating with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on space exploration.
The 59-year-old NASA astronaut and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore addressed reporters at their first joint press conference days after they returned to Earth as part of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, having been stranded in space for over nine months.
“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 said.
William’s remarks echoed the observation made 41 years back by Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma, who lifted off on a Soviet rocket to become the first Indian in outer space. Asked by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi how India looked from there, Sharma said, “Sare jahan se achcha.”
She made those remarks while referring to the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) commercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station that will include Mission Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India.
Lucknow-born Shukla will be India’s second astronaut after former Indian Air Force officer Rakesh Sharma to go to space in 1984.
“They’ll have a hometown hero there of their own who 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. 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 space countries. We’d love to be part of that and help them along,” she said.
Williams’s father Deepak Pandya hailed from Gujarat and came to the US in 1958 where he did his internship and residency training in Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio.
She was born in Ohio to Deepak and Ursuline Bonnie Pandya.
When Wilmore asked Williams if she planned to take her crew members on the trip to India with her, she replied with a laugh “Absolutely. You might stick out a little bit but that’s okay. We’ll get you all primed with some spicy food, will be good.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Williams and her fellow Crew-9 members as they returned to Earth after the prolonged mission to the International Space Station, saying their unwavering determination will forever inspire millions.
“Welcome back, Crew9! The Earth missed you,” Modi said in a post on X.
NASA astronauts Williams, Nick Hague and Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth on March 18 onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which splashed down in the sea off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.
For Williams and Wilmore, test pilots for Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, an eight-day mission stretched to more than nine months as a series of helium leaks and thruster failures deemed their spacecraft unsafe. The spacecraft returned without them in September.
“Theirs has been a test of grit, courage and the boundless human spirit. Williams Williams and the #Crew9 astronauts have once again shown us what perseverance truly means. Their unwavering determination in the face of the vast unknown will forever inspire millions,” Modi had said.
“We are incredibly proud of all those who worked tirelessly to ensure their safe return. They have demonstrated what happens when precision meets passion and technology meets tenacity,” Modi had said.
