An award winning journalist with over 40 years of experience reporting on science and technology, climate change, health, environment and innovation, Dinesh C Sharma delves into India on the cosmic stage in his new book.
Space: The India Story, published by Bloomsbury India, looks at India in space research and a developing nation dealing with 20th-century problems advanced in the race with frugality and innovation. Sharma traces the journey of over six decades, looking into missions, technology, and Indian-origin astronauts who helped put the country on the space map.
As she celebrates her return to Earth after nine months of being stranded at the International Space Station, read about Sunita Williams’ early life and journey to joining NASA in the following excerpt from the book.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams being helped out of the SpaceX capsule after it splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida PTI
Sunita Williams: Marathoner in Space
In June 2024, a human space mission caught global attention and led to a media frenzy in India. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft was launched on 5 June for a ten-day rendezvous with the ISS. This was the first crewed flight of Starliner and was meant to validate its performance, safety and reliability as a space transport system. Its return journey, however, had to be postponed for several months as the spacecraft experienced a helium leak and problems with its thrusters during the docking with ISS, and astronauts needed time to fix them. Starliner returned to Earth in September 2024 but without its two passengers as NASA did not want to take any risks. Another spacecraft was arranged for the crew of Starliner.
On the Starliner flight were two experienced NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. Sunita’s participation in the flight evoked great interest in India owing to her Indian connection – she is only the second woman astronaut of Indian descent to fly into space. Kalpana Chawla was the first. Sunita’s space career started after Kalpana’s, but she broke many records in space. During her two long-term stays on ISS, Sunita created many records – the longest continuous space flight by a woman (192 days), the highest number of spacewalks
(seven) by a woman astronaut and the longest spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes). She became the second woman ever to command the ISS. All these achievements made Sunita a household name in India though she was not born or educated in the country like Kalpana.
Sunita Williams arrives at NASA's Johnson Space Center after her return to earth from the International Space Station PTI
Tracing the Roots
During a visit to India, Sunita was asked about her role models. She said, ‘The people who have inspired me the most are my parents – my father coming from India and my mother coming from not well-to-do family in midwestern America. Both went through a lot of struggles in their lives and have given everything they have had to my brother, my sister and myself, and have been amazing role models for us in morally, mentally, and physically what to do in life.’
She considered herself lucky to have grown up in a multicultural environment, which she felt helped in shaping her space career during which she worked with the Russians on projects for building the ISS. We will further discuss ISS later.
Sunita’s story represents the typical emigrant tale. She was born to Deepak Pandya, who immigrated to America in search of greener pastures, and Ursuline Bonnie Zalokar of Slovenian descent (Bonnie’s grandmother came to America in the early 1900s). Deepak, a freshly minted doctor, arrived in America by the sea route, which took twenty-one days, met Bonnie, an X-ray technician, in his first job and got married to her. The two worked hard to raise three children and gave them a good education so that they could live the American dream. Bonnie was born and raised in Cleveland where the Zalokar family ran a delicatessen.
Deepak Pandya, born in a village called Jhulasan in the Mehsana District of Gujarat, got his medical degrees (MBBS and MD) from Gujarat University in 1957 and completed an internship at the Sheth Vadilal Sarabhai Hospital in Ahmedabad. He went to America when he got an offer
for an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. After a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroanatomy, he was set on the path to becoming a leading expert in this field globally. He studied principles underlying brain organisation and published about 600 original research papers, monographs and books.
After he died in 2020 at the age of eighty-seven, the Journal of Comparative Neurology brought out a special issue in his honour, and Boston University, where he was emeritus professor of anatomy and neurobiology, organised a memorial symposium. His colleagues affectionately called him Dee.
Sunita, Suni to her family and friends, was born in Euclid, Ohio, on 19 September 1965. When she was three, her family moved to Needham, Massachusetts, near Boston. Sunita was the youngest of three siblings. The eldest was Jay, followed by Dina. Sunita went to elementary, middle and high school in Needham, graduating in 1983. In her school days, she loved many sports – swimming, triathlon, biking, baseball, football, basketball and hockey.
The Pandya household was multicultural and multifaith, values which Sunita, too, imbibed. Deepak was a gentle and spiritual person, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and a believer in the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. The family went to the local church on Sundays. Both Diwali and Christmas were celebrated with equal enthusiasm. Deepak would often narrate stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to his children in their growing-up years. Given Bonnie’s interest in baking and Deepak’s love for Gujarati dishes, food was almost a family activity. Sunita likes pani puri and samosa (which were among the snacks she consumed in space). Her husband can make samosas, while her mother makes jalebis.
This multicultural upbringing was reflected in the memorabilia that Sunita took with her on her first space journey in 2007 – a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a statue of Ganesha and a St Christopher medallion (a Catholic symbol of protection and safe travel). ‘Those were the things that were a part of our life when we were growing up. It was natural for me to take a part of my life with me to space. I took a little something from my father and some things from my mother,’ she told an interviewer.
The Pandyas shared a love for outdoor activities and sports, such as hiking, camping, windsurfing, swimming, skiing, soccer and tennis. The kids also got lessons in piano, ballet dancing and so on. Sunita was good at competitive swimming and ran the Boston Marathon when she was sixteen, without any preparation. All three siblings took lessons and practised swimming at the Harvard pool under the legendary coach Joe Bernal. The Pandya kids joined Bernal’s swim club, Bernal’s Gators. Sunita was also a swimming instructor for special-needs children.
Deepak Pandya and his family remained connected with relatives and friends in India. Sunita visited Gujarat in 1998 when her cousin Haren Pandya (Haren’s mother is Deepak Pandya’s sister) was elected member of the Legislative Assembly on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket. ‘Sunita has been emotionally attached to Haren. In fact, in 1998 she had come from the US to campaign for Haren and had participated in his victory procession. She was so thrilled to see the large turnout,’ Haren’s father, Vitthalbhai, was quoted as saying in newspaper reports in September 2007 when Sunita visited Ahmedabad after her space flight. Besides visiting Sabarmati Ashram and Dola Mata temple in Jhulasan, she visited the Haren Pandya memorial and garlanded his statue. In New Delhi, she met the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and visited the American Embassy School.
Sunita Williams at Science City in Kolkata in 2013
A Career in the US Navy
As a child, Sunita was fascinated with fantasy stories and was not into science fiction, as one would expect of a future astronaut. In school, she was interested in science and related outdoor activities like exploring nature and the environment. She participated in experiments related to marine biology. At home, she was attached to her pet dogs and spent a lot of time with them. The Pandyas were popular among the neighbourhood kids for nurturing puppies and kittens of different types. Deepak was a medical scientist and a practising doctor, so discussions at home often included questions of science and philosophy. Sunita was aware of major events like the human landing on the Moon but never thought of pursuing any career in engineering or space. Deepak remembers Sunita watching the Moon landing on television and jumping with joy. As she grew up, Sunita wanted to be a veterinarian, given her love for dogs and other animals. After graduating from school, she applied for a course in veterinary science. Swimming, not flying, was her favourite outdoor activity.
It so happened that when she was trying to make a career choice, her brother Jay graduated from the US Naval Academy in Maryland. The family drove to the academy for the graduation ceremony. After the ceremony, Jay took the family around the academy, showing them all the facilities for athletics, swimming and the like. He was captain of the academy’s swimming team and thought that the academy would be a good place for Sunita, too, to pursue her interest in athletics and swimming. Jay’s suggestion was tempting to Sunita, and she agreed to apply for a course at the academy. There were few girls on the campus as the entry of women into the US Navy had begun just a couple of years earlier. She applied for a course in physical science. At that time, applications had to be endorsed by a congressman or senator. Hers was endorsed by Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy who was impressed by the credentials on her CV – from athletics to volunteering in a local hospital. Sunita entered the academy in 1983.
As Jay had predicted, Sunita excelled in a range of outdoor activities, from swimming to biking, at the academy. ‘I really had fun and learned about leadership and followership going through the ranks there, and teamwork. I was on the swim team there, I was on the cross-country team, on the bike club, so a lot of sports, like my brother had suggested,’ Sunita later confided to a biographer, Arvinda Anantharaman. In academics, she was not a class topper but did reasonably well. Sunita graduated in 1987 and joined the US Navy where she was assigned the beginner’s rank of ensign. After the induction training, ensigns could choose from navy air, marine or submarine services or special programmes like diving. Being an ace swimmer, her first choice was diving, but the application was rejected. She opted for the next special stream, navy air. While waiting for her air training to begin, she completed the diving programme and obtained a diving officer certificate though she was not commissioned as a diver.
Sunita Williams at the U.S Naval Academy U.S Naval Academy Store/ Facebook
At the Naval Air Training Command, she wanted to train on jets but was instead assigned helicopters. She became a naval aviator in July 1989 and was asked to join the Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 (HC-8) in Norfolk, Virginia. Here, a lot of exciting assignments awaited Sunita. She made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort to provide humanitarian aid. She carried supplies and cargo to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War in 1990. Two years later, she was named the officer-in-charge of an H-46 detachment for Hurricane Andrew relief operations aboard USS Sylvania.
In January 1993, she changed tacks once again and started training to become a test pilot at the US Naval Test Pilot School. She graduated in December 1993 and was assigned to the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as a chase pilot. As a test pilot, she flew some thirty different types of planes and helicopters and logged over 3000 flying hours. She discovered that she was as good in the air as she was in the water.
Meanwhile, Sunita married Michael Williams, chief inspector in the Judicial Security Division of the federal government, in 1989, changing her name to Sunita Williams. He was her batchmate in the Naval Academy.
Becoming an Astronaut
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams
Sunita’s life journey is full of coincidences and second options. She never got to do what she wanted as the first choice, but second options opened new doors for her. She wanted to be a vet but ended up in the navy. There, her interest was in diving, but she became an aviator. In
aviation, her first choice was to fly jet planes, but she was assigned helicopters. While doing all this, a career path in space was never on the cards. However, a visit to JSC changed it all.
It so happened that while training to become a test pilot, Sunita had to attend a training session at JSC. The exposure was a part of the test pilot course. The class was taken by a veteran astronaut of NASA, John Young. He was among the handful of astronauts who landed and walked on the Moon in 1972 and had flown six times on the Shuttle. Before becoming an astronaut, Young was a naval officer and aviator and had been to the test pilot school. He mentioned that he had to learn to fly helicopters while training for the Moon landing. ‘He landed on the moon in some type of vertical apparatus – that sounds like helicopters, and I was a helicopter pilot – so it seemed like it might fit. Then, I started looking at what I needed
to do to become an astronaut,’ Sunita recalled later of her meeting with Young at JSC.
Soon, Sunita sent in an application to NASA for astronaut training. Though she ticked all the boxes like physical fitness, 1000-hour flying experience and team player, she did not qualify academically. A master’s degree in science and engineering was mandatory. She noticed that several astronauts were from the US Navy, particularly from the test pilot school where she had been. So, she did not want to give up and enrolled for a master’s course in engineering management at Florida Institute of Technology. After the two-year course, she returned to the test pilot school and logged in more flying hours before applying to NASA for the second time in 1997. She was called for the interview and was finally selected. After eleven years in the US Navy, she entered NASA in June 1998 as a part of the 18th Astronauts Group.
Buy the book here