Mumbai: For Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds the record for the longest space walk time, her dream is to go to the moon and see how interesting it would be to see our planet from that perspective.
But for now, she says she has a great opportunity to talk to as many young people as possible on the challenges of space science and her experiences in space. Her longterm goal, she happily admits, is to be a teacher. “When I grow up, I would like to be a school teacher, a science teacher.”
It was obvious how much she enjoyed talking to awestruck school children from Mumbai’s schools who had gathered at the Nehru Science Centre for an interactive session. On being the record holder of the longest spacewalk time for a female astronaut, she told them, “These are milestones that will be overcome by explorers of your generation. I was lucky to have been at the right place at the right time.”
On asked who her role model was, she told the kids she held her parents in high regards. “My Dad left his home country, took a boat all the way to the US and didn’t know where his adventure would lead him. He met my mother of Slovenian descent and they had nothing when they started life together. My Mum worked her way higher to study in a business school.” Whatever Williams does, she says, “I always think, ‘will it make my mother proud’?”
Being good at one’s work and a sense of confidence would take the young far if they wanted to get into a career in space science. Encouraging the students, she said going up in space can be a spectacular experience, especially after leaving the earth’s gravity. “It makes everyone laugh when we start floating. How cool is that. You need to do that. It’s really fun,” said.
Later, speaking to journalists at a press interaction, she said, “I had a big desire to talk to the next generation. There is so much potential among the young. India should be a part of international programmes.” After visiting Delhi and Mumbai, she would pay a visit to her ancestral village in Gujarat.
Asked whether one’s perception changes when in space, she said, “Of course it changes our perspective of everything. When you look out of the window and see our planet, you realise how lucky we are. It’s that small height of around 400 km of atmosphere around our planet and nothing above that has any life. We must be happy to be living together.”
Astronauts at the International Space Station, she said, had a daily busy schedule and were quite connected to their families and news back home. “What I miss is the rain, wind, walking on the beach and everything that is on this planet.”
