Astronauts' return a test of grit, says PM

When Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams's week-long journey aboard the International Space Station (ISS) was extended by a few days in June 2024, her extended family in Gujarat was not particularly worried.

- HT Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: But, as her return to Earth kept getting delayed, they feared the worst.

As weeks turned into months, their worries grew. Their anxiety peaked when a SpaceX capsule carrying Williams and fellow Nasa Crew-9 member Butch Wilmore began its way to Earth on Tuesday.

Williams' cousin Dinesh Rawal (84), who lives in Ahmedabad, said his family could not sleep all night as they prayed for her sister's safe return. The worries subsided when the spacecraft carrying the astronauts made a soft splash-down off Florida's coast on Tuesday local time, ending the nine-month space mission fraught with technical troubles and uncertainty. "...As her return kept getting delayed, we started to fear the worst," Rawal said, referring to Williams and Wilmore being forced to extend their stay on the ISS after propulsion issues rendered their Boeing Starliner craft unfit for return. "For a government like the US, spending a few million dollars to bring back their astronauts should not have been a big deal. Finally, by God's grace, she returned safely... and we heaved a sigh of relief."

Rawal said he met Williams in the US before she departed for the space mission. He described her as bold and courageous from a young age. Rawal recalled her visit to India during her childhood and said she once grabbed a snake and began playing with it fearlessly.