Following her third spaceflight, Williams has the second-longest combined time in space of any US astronaut – 608 cumulative days
NASA astronauts Sunita (Suni) Williams who is Indian American, and Butch Wilmore, returned to Earth after an 8-day mission to test the Boeing Starliner capsule turned into an unplanned 9-month stint in space. The pair traveled into space in June 2024 and returned safely home on March 18, 2025, after a 17-hour descent.
When the Starliner capsule encountered technical difficulties, NASA returned it to Earth empty, leaving the two astronauts behind on the International Space Station (ISS).
In a fiery re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere, the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 capsule carrying astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov splashed down off the coast of Florida near Tallahassee and were welcomed by an unexpected pod of curious dolphins.
“What a ride,” said Hague, the Crew-9 mission commander inside the Dragon capsule, told mission control moments after splashing down. “I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear.”
The astronauts emerged smiling and waving from the Space X capsule and will spend some time in recovery to stabilize and adapt to Earth’s gravity. After medical evaluations clear them, they will reunite with their families and take some well-deserved time off, said NASA.
Williams and Wilmore are veteran NASA astronauts and retired U.S. Navy test pilots. During their nine months on the ISS, they conducted 150 experiments and 900 hours of research that will improve the chances of NASA landing a person on Mars. The football field-sized ISS has been a research lab staffed continuously by international crews of astronauts for nearly 25 years.
Indian PM Narendra Modi acknowledged their courage in a post on X.
Sunita Lyn Williams (59) is the daughter of Deepak Pandya, an Indian American neuroanatomist, and his Slovenian-American wife Ursuline Bonnie Pandya. She grew up in Needham, MA, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a degree in physical science. She began her career as a commissioned ensign in the U.S. Navy in 1987 before becoming a naval aviator and test pilot. She was selected for NASA’s astronaut program in 1998. Following her third spaceflight, Williams has the second-longest combined time in space of any US astronaut – 608 cumulative days – second only to Peggy Whitson (675 days).
In India, William’s ancestral village of Jhulasan in Gujarat plans to honor her achievement with a grand procession and festivities. The villagers had offered prayers and lit an ‘Akhand Jyoti’ to celebrate her safe return.
Read: Kalpana Chawla – Citizen of Galaxies
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Courtesy: India Currents (Posted on March 19, 2025)
