Sunita Williams says India is amazing from space, ‘for sure going back to my father’s home country’

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams shares her experiences in space, expresses optimism about visiting India and collaborating with ISRO.

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.

Ms. Williams made these remarks during a press conference Monday (March 31, 2025). She was responding to a question on how India looked from space when she was in the International Space Station and on possibility of her collaborating with 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,” Ms. 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 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.

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"I think, when you come from the east, going into like Gujarat and Mumbai, the fishing fleet that's off the coast there gives you a little bit of a beacon that here we come, and then all throughout India, I think the impression I had was it was just like this network of lights from the bigger cities going down through the smaller cities. Just incredible to look at at night as well as during the day, highlighted, of course, by the Himalayas, which is just incredible as a forefront going down into India,” she said.