International

India is amazing from space, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams said and voiced optimism that she will visit her “father's home country” and share experiences about space exploration with people there.

Williams made these remarks during a press conference. 

She was responding to a question on how India looked from space when she was in the International Space Station and on the possibility of her collaborating with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on space exploration. "India is amazing. Every time we went over the Himalayas, and I'll tell you, Butch got some incredible pictures of the Himalayas. Just amazing,” Williams said.

The 59-year-old NASA astronaut and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore addressed reporters at their first joint press conference days after they returned to Earth as part of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, having been stranded in space for over nine months.

"And you can see, like I've described it before, just like this ripple that happened, obviously when the plates collided, and then as it flows down into India. It's many, many colours," she said. William's remarks echoed the observation made 41 years back by Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma, who lifted off on a Soviet rocket to become the first Indian in outer space. Asked by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi how India looked from there, Sharma said, "Sare jahan se achcha."

Williams added “I hope, and I think for sure, I'm gonna be going back to my father's home country and visiting with people and getting excited about the first, or not the first, but the Indian national who's going up on the Axiom Mission coming up, pretty awesome,” she said.