New Delhi:
Eight years before the Boeing Starliner suffered glitches, ensuring an extended stay on the International Space Station for nine months, NDTV had spoken to Sunita Williams and asked whether she thought flying on a privately built spacecraft could be risky. The Indian-origin astronaut, who had already begun collaborating with Boeing at the time, had said that while there were bumps and even a few heated discussions, she was confident that the spacecraft would be safe when people flew in it.
Speaking exclusively to NDTV during a visit to India in 2016, Ms Williams also spoke about being the first astronaut to have samosas on the International Space Station (ISS) and how she intended to carry an idol of Lord Ganesh, whom she called her “good-luck charm”, on her next spaceflight. Follow Sunita Williams Homecoming Live Updates Here
Responding to a question on whether she thought she was taking a big risk by being one of the first astronauts on a private sector spacecraft, Ms Williams, who is vastly experienced and also held the record for the maximum hours of spacewalks by a woman, said the collaboration with Boeing and SpaceX had been really good and the companies had allowed them to participate in the development of the craft.
“We are working hand in hand with our commercial partners. And I think it’s a really good collaboration, a really good partnership where, particularly the first four of us who are going to more than likely fly on their spacecraft, they have allowed us into their companies to take a look at what their engineers are doing and understand from the grassroots part of development of the spacecraft, how it is being made. What’s interesting and nice about that, I think they are open to that because both of these companies only have a limited number of people who have flown in space,” she had said.
Ms Williams said the companies understood that the astronauts were trying to ensure they would be successful and their expertise would help them.
“At the same time, we are not doing things the way we have always done them. We are letting the companies come up with new ideas. And so we are having this dialogue back and forth, a little bit of a debate, like, how come you think this process is correct? And then they have to defend it a little bit. We have to defend our ideas of why we think things should go a (certain) way. And then we could come to the best solution,” she said.
“So, of course, we are going to run into bumps and have a little heated discussion on some of these things. But I think we will iron it all out and we will figure it all out. And I think by the time we put the people on the spacecraft, we will have a very safe spacecraft,” she asserted.
Ms Williams was assigned to the Starliner project in 2018 and played a key role in the development of the spacecraft, which carried her and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station in June last year.
Indian Connection
Sunita Williams’ father, Deepak Pandya, is from Jhulasan village in Gujarat’s Mehsana and left for the United States in 1957. The Indian connection was clearly very much on her mind when NDTV asked her why she ate samosas at the ISS and said she had asked for some “special things that reminded her of home”.
“I think my answer to a lot of things is, why not? If you have the opportunity, take it. I love samosas. I had asked for some special things that reminded me of home, and one of those things was samosas. And so my family was somehow able to work with NASA – we get some care packages when we are up in space for a long time, and so they put the samosas in there, and it was a nice surprise,” she said.
The astronaut had carried the Gita into space in an earlier mission and to a question on what she intended to take with her next, she said it would probably be a Ganesh idol.
“Something for my niece and nephew, who are both Indian. I will probably bring something for them, some Indian toys as well as probably another Ganesh, because Ganesh is my good luck charm… I’m more of a just a spiritual person. I just know he’s there with me, guiding (me),” she said.
Ms Williams also said she had been good friends with fellow Indian-origin astronaut Kalpana Chawla since she had met her after joining NASA.
“We did a lot of things together. Did a lot of nature walks, went bike riding quite a bit, just talked a lot. She’s just the type of person that you would automatically connect with. And probably our similar backgrounds, just having Indian parents, you know, lent itself to that,” she said.
Calculated Risks
When she was asked whether Ms Chawla’s death – when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere in 2003 – worried her sometimes, Ms Williams said, “Yes and no. I mean, we understood, I knew we would come to the conclusion and understand exactly what happened to Space Shuttle Columbia. And we would fix that problem. And moving on from there, I think all of the Columbia crew, all the members there, were all good friends of ours in the astronaut office. And I think what their dream, their vision, was just to continue and to explore.
“And, so, it worries us all. I think every time we or any of our friends from the office get on a rocket, it’s a big explosion essentially that you’re sitting on. But those are calculated risks,” she asserted.