Beyond Borders, Into the Stars: Sunita Williams and India’s Shared Journey to Space

Tanzeela Nabi

A remarkable tale of science, spirit, and heritage. How one astronaut bridged worlds with grace and grit. India’s space dreams soar higher, inspired by one of their own.

In a world where gravity binds us to the ground, some souls dare to look up—and fly. Sunita Lyn Williams, born on September 19, 1965, in Euclid, Ohio, is one such remarkable soul. Though raised in the United States, she continues to remain a beloved figure across the globe, especially in India—a country she has proudly represented through spirit, tradition, and action. 

With a career that spans from U.S. Navy helicopters to historic spacewalks, Williams has inspired countless people, not merely as a woman in space but as a living symbol of multicultural pride and scientific excellence. Sunita Williams is the daughter of Dr. Deepak Pandya, a neuroanatomist from Gujarat, India, and Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, of Slovene origin. Her upbringing was infused with diverse cultures, which she embraced not only on Earth but also in space. In one deeply symbolic gesture, she once carried a Slovenian sausage, Indian samosas, and both the Indian and Slovenian flags aboard her mission—underscoring that the sky, quite literally, knows no borders.

 An alumna of Needham High School (1983), Sunita pursued a Bachelor of Science in Physical Science from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987 and later earned a Master's degree in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1995. She began her career as a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, serving during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort. Her dedication and skill saw her log over 3,000 flight hours across more than 30 aircraft. By the time she retired from the Navy in 2017, Williams had already earned her wings in more ways than one. Her transition from military service to space exploration began when she was selected by NASA in 1998. What followed was a series of missions that would etch her name in the annals of space history. Her first mission, STS-116, took her to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2006. There, she performed an extraordinary feat—completing the Boston Marathon on a treadmill while in orbit. In 2012, during Expeditions 32/33, she became the second woman to command the ISS and finished a triathlon in space. With over 600 days logged in space and nine spacewalks totalling more than 60 hours, Sunita Williams once held the record for the most time spent on spacewalks by a woman. Yet her legacy transcends records. It’s about the ways she has taken pieces of home into orbit.

 On one mission, Williams brought along the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads—ancient Indian texts that offered her solace and introspection in the quiet void of space. She even celebrated Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, aboard the ISS, thinking fondly of her father and lighting a figurative lamp of culture in the cosmic dark.“ Indian food! You can never get enough Indian food,” she once said cheerfully, referring to her decision to carry samosas on a spaceflight. Such moments humanize space travel and remind us of the emotional threads that bind us to Earth, no matter how far we drift away from it. Sunita has always embraced her Indian identity with warmth and grace. Whether visiting schools in India, engaging with ISRO scientists, or delivering inspiring addresses to Indian youth, she has made it a mission to remind young dreamers that “the world is open to them.” In one of her widely admired interactions, she told Indian students in 2013, “I am just like them.” It’s a simple sentence, but one that continues to ignite aspirations. Her influence was formally recognized when India awarded her the Padma Bhushan in 2008—its third-highest civilian award. Internationally, too, she has been celebrated, earning honours such as the Legion of Merit and Defence Superior Service Medal from the United States, the Medal “For Merit in Space Exploration” from Russia, and the Golden Order for Merits from Slovenia.

 Sunita Williams’s story, while deeply personal, runs parallel to India’s own journey in space science—a journey defined by vision, innovation, and relentless effort. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), established in 1969, has made ground breaking progress over the decades. In 2008, it launched Chandrayaan-1, which confirmed the presence of water molecules on the Moon. Chandrayaan-2 followed in 2019, with its orbiter still relaying critical data. But it was Chandrayaan-3 that truly made history—on August 23, 2023, India became the first country to land near the Moon’s south pole, a region believed to be rich in water ice and crucial to future lunar missions. The nation’s space narrative didn’t stop there. Mangalyaan, the Mars Orbiter Mission launched in 2013, made India the first Asian country to reach the red planet and the first in the world to do so on its maiden attempt. In 2023, ISRO launched Aditya-L1, a solar mission that reached Lagrange Point 1 in 2024, providing uninterrupted observation of the Sun and laying the groundwork for safer and more informed space exploration.

 Adding another feather to its cap, India achieved its first space docking mission in January 2025, becoming only the fourth country to accomplish this intricate feat—an essential capability for future space stations and interplanetary missions. Through all of this, the bond between Sunita Williams and India has remained strong. She is not merely admired for her technical brilliance, but for the cultural empathy and humility with which she represents her heritage. From sacred scriptures and festive lights to spicy snacks, Sunita has ensured that a piece of India always travels with her into space. Now, she is preparing for another chapter in her celestial journey—as the commander of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner’s Crew Flight Test to the ISS, a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Even as she continues to reach for new heights, her legacy is already well-established. As India prepares for its first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, and looks toward missions to Venus (Shukrayaan) and even the creation of its own space station by the 2030s, the symbiosis between Sunita Williams’s personal journey and India’s national ambitions becomes ever more inspiring.

In the cosmic vastness, where distances are measured in light-years and silence reigns supreme, it is stories like these that echo the loudest—stories of courage, curiosity, identity, and unity. Sunita Williams and India's space program are not just tales of defying gravity; they are chronicles of lifting humanity’s spirit. Together, they remind us that the final frontier is not just a place—but a promise.

                                                                                       The author can be reached at :tanzeelanabi56@gmail.com