“Sunita Williams To Enjoy Fish Curry At Her Home In Space”: NASA To NDTV

NASA’s Indian-origin astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams has safely reached the International Space Station (ISS), her third visit to the orbiting platform. This time she flew on a brand new spacecraft, the Boeing Starliner, which she helped design and piloted.

On reaching the ISS, she had a little “dance party” and hugged the seven other crew members. “A big thanks to family and friends who lived this [moment] for a long time. I think you are glad we are not with you anymore and we have another family up here which is just awesome,” said Ms Williams, who has been to the ISS twice, traveling once on a shuttle and then aboard a Russian Soyuz vessel.

Speaking before her space sojourn, Ms Williams, 59, said she is a bit nervous but has “no jitters” of flying in a new spacecraft and once she reaches the International Space Station “it will be like going back home”.

NASA confirmed to NDTV that Ms Williams will have “fish curry”, special Indian dish on the space flight, making sure it feels like home to the veteran astronaut.

On earlier flights, she gorged on samosas. NASA has confirmed to NDTV that “Suni” is not taking samosas on this mission. Her love for Indian cuisine comes from her parental lineage.

Born to Dr Deepak Pandya and Bonnie Pandya, Ms Williams has again created history by being the first woman to fly on the first mission of a new human-rated spacecraft.

Ms Williams, a Navy-trained pilot, has already spent a total of 322 days in space. She held the record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a woman astronaut but that has since been overtaken by Peggy Whitson with 10 spacewalks.

Before her flight, Ms Williams told NDTV that she will carry a statue of Lord Ganesh with her on the commercial crew flight as it was her good luck charm. She added she was more spiritual than religious and was happy to have Lord Ganesh with her in outer space.

Earlier, she carried copies of the Bhagwad Gita to space. She also said she loved samosas. Among her other passions, she is also a marathon runner and ran one while at the ISS.

Ms Williams’ father was a neuro-anatomist born at Jhulasan, in Gujarat’s Mehsana District, but later migrated to USA and married Bonnie Pandya, a Slovenian. NASA says she was selected to be an astronaut in 1998 and after the Space Shuttle was retired in in 2015 she was chosen to be part of the select group of astronauts who would fly on NASA’s commercial crew program.

NASA selected Space X and Boeing to make new spacecraft that would ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and Space X has being doing this since 2020.

The Boeing Starliner has had many delays and on its maiden flight it has reached the ISS.

She flew with 61-year-old Astronaut Barry Eugene “Butch” Wilmore, a navy test pilot, who has flown into space twice. Both veterans were launched on a United Launch Alliance, Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station. The astronauts will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before the crew capsule makes a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States of America, says NASA.

Notably, Ms Williams was given the opportunity to name the spacecraft she would fly in and she called it “Calypso” after the famous ship on which the French oceanographer and legendary film maker Jacques-Yves Cousteau explored the oceans when she was still a student.

She also has school named after her the “Sunita Williams Elementary School” in the town of Needham in USA, and if all goes well on June 10 she will interact with school children from on board the space station.

According to NASA, “Suni” and her husband Michael enjoy hanging out with their dogs, exercising, working on houses, cars, airplanes, hiking and camping. As a navy test pilot, she has logged more than 3,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft.