Sunita Williams returned to Earth after nine months in space, only to narrowly miss meeting India’s Shubhanshu Shukla who reached ISS right after she was left on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule (Freedom).
“Though I spent nine months in space during my latest trip to the ISS, I missed meeting Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla who reached the station just after I left,” Williams said during an interactive session, ‘Eyes on the Stars, Feet on the Ground’ at American Center.
During her last trip to space before hanging her astronaut suit, Williams went to ISS in 2024 for a scheduled 8-day space trip but had to spend 9 months on ISS as the Boeing Starliner that took her to ISS malfunctioned and had to return empty-handed. Later, SpaceX’s Dragon brought Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore back to Earth on March 18, 2025, with the duo ending up spending 286 days in space. India’s Group Capt Shukla went to space as part of the Axiom mission on June 25, 2025.
Williams faced several health issues after returning to Earth after remaining in zero gravity for a long time. However, the 60-year-old was seen in high spirits in Delhi on Tuesday, guiding and inspiring Indian students to join the space sector. To cheer her at the Delhi event was the mother of another Indian-American astronaut, Kalpana Chawla, who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia crash in 2003. Williams, wearing a trademark deep blue space overalls and sporting a pair of space-themed canvas shoes, stepped off the dais and reached out to Chawla’s mother, Sanyogita Chawla, 90, who was sitting in the front row, and gave her a warm hug.
When asked about the renewed global interest in the Moon, Williams acknowledged the existence of a modern “space race”. “I think there is a space race going on. We want to get back to the moon sustainably and start the conversation about rules of engagement— how we actually work together with other countries. We want to do this in a productive, democratic way, much like Antarctica,” she said.
Williams asserted that the horizon of space exploration is rapidly expanding beyond traditional boundaries, stating that the commercialisation of space is creating unprecedented opportunities for innovation. “Commercialisation of space is great. It means there are opportunities for people to work in so many different companies— not only rockets and spacecraft, but parts of space, experiments, satellites, and 3D printing of metals,” she said.
“In my childhood, I never dreamt of becoming an astronaut. We used to watch Star Trek on black & white TV. After I did my schooling and graduated, my brother pushed me to join the military and, thereafter, I became a Navy officer,” she said. Williams had logged more than 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 types of aircraft during her career in the US Navy before donning the astronaut suit. While flying aircraft as a Navy commander, I then wished that I should go to the Moon. From then on, I pursued the career of an astronaut,” Williams recalled.
Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams was born to a Gujarati father, Deepak Pandya, hailing from Jhulasan in Mehsana district and a Slovenian mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, on September 19, 1965, in Euclid, Ohio, in the US.
“Suni Williams has been a trailblazer in human spaceflight, shaping the future of exploration through her leadership aboard the space station and paving the way for commercial missions to low Earth orbit,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was quoted as saying in the statement.
“Her work advancing science and technology has laid the
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