After passing over ‘incredible’ Himalayas in space, Sunita Williams to plan an India trip? here's what she said | Watch

Calling India, “amazing country with great democracy”, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams on Tuesday said that she plans to visit India soon and meet with the team at ISRO during her trip.

Sunita Williams' mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya (nee Zalokar), is of Slovenian-American descent, while her father, Deepak Pandya, is from Gujarat.

Also Read: Sunita Williams’ space journey: Who is Indian-American astronaut, what did she eat in space? All you need to know

At the NASA SpaceX Crew-9 Post-Flight News Conference, Williams expressed her admiration for India, describing it as 'amazing' every time her spacecraft passed over the Himalayas during her extended nine-month stay in space.

“I hope and I think for sure I'm going to be going back to my father's home country and visiting with people and getting excited about the Indian astronauts who's going up on the ISRO mission coming up,” she said.

Here's what Sunita Williams said about India

Williams said that she could see India's geographical formation: when the landmass collided to form the Himalayas, India was formed as a ripple effect.

“India is amazing. Every time we went over the Himalayas- we got some incredible pictures of the Himalayas- so just amazing. Like I've described it before, just like this ripple happened. Obviously, it was when the plates collided and then as they flowed down into India. It's many, many colours,” she said.

Williams talked about India's diversity visible from space, from the Himalayas to a different culture in the East to the fishing fleet in the West.

“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! All throughout India,” she said.

Also Read: Here’s how India looks from space at night, courtesy Nasa

Williams said the country looked like a network of lights, with major cities being the brightest and waning down towards smaller cities.

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“I think the impression I had was that it was just like this network of lights from the bigger cities going down through the smaller cities. [It was] 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,” she said.

NASA astronauts' return to Earth

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Nick Hague, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth on March 18 aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which safely splashed down in the sea off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.

For Sunita and Wilmore, who are test pilots for Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, an eight-day mission turned into an unexpected nine-month stay due to a series of helium leaks and thruster failures that rendered their spacecraft unsafe. The Starliner capsule returned without them in September.

Also Read: Sunita Williams Highlights: ISRO, PM Modi hail Sunita Williams' return

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised their resilience, stating, “Theirs has been a test of grit, courage, and the boundless human spirit. Sunita 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.”