She is called Sunny Williams by her dear ones; I believe she was destined to be with the stars

and the space. We are joined here with NASA’s famous astronaut with Indian ethnicity,
Captain Sunita Williams, who holds the record for one of the longest spacewalks ever.

It is my absolute honor and pleasure to have you here. Thank you for sharing your valuable
time with me.

1. Your videos from space are not only mesmerizing but also a motivation for the coming
generations to take space exploration and astronomy as their career pursuit. It looks beautiful
but I am aware that the preparation for the space life was challenging and so I appreciate
your determination. How difficult is it, physically and mentally, to switch between Earth and
space?

Answer: Well, luckily, the space expedition for a little while. The mental switch happens a
week or two before we leave while the physical acclimatization takes a week but once it
happens, it feels like you’ve been in space for a really long time and it feels natural to be there
so fortunately there is not much effort while the switch happens.

2. What was it like going to space for the first time?

Answer: I was selected fairly young and got to fly after just nine years of training, which is
somewhat of a short time to wait compared to many. People asked if I was scared but I
wasn’t really. I had an extensive training, I knew what to expect. Feeling the acceleration in
the Space Shuttle was amazing. The first couple of minutes it really shakes you. However, I
was scared in space, because we’d trained for years and we only had 15 days to complete
our mission. All I kept thinking to myself was, “ People have been working on this for years!”
The fear of failure was the scariest thing about going into space.

3. What was the hardest part of going to space?

Answer: I didn’t mind it so much in space, but my body felt really old when I came back to
Earth; the gravity was so intense. I was fine in space, but I’m not exceptional or a superhero.
Of the seven Shuttle crew members and three on the Soyuz I was the worst coming back by
far. The micro-gravity environment does a lot to your body. You lose a lot of calcium in
space; your bones and muscles can get quite weak. Your skeleton also stretches (I was five
or six centimetres taller than on Earth), and so muscles keep their strength but they are of a
different length. Your body’s equilibrium shifts, and when you come back to Earth the
muscles start contracting again, but they cannot find the equilibrium point so easily. I
remember shaking constantly. Also I could be sitting and feel totally tired. Coming back to
Earth is definitely the hardest aspect of being in space – for me, anyway!
4. How did you ensure your body stayed in shape? How did you adapt to life in space?

Answer: We’d do about two hours of physical fitness every day. I would say you come back in
better shape [in terms of fitness]. Doing two hours of exercise every day for six months, I
came back with more muscles and less fat than when I left.
We did about one hour of cardiovascular exercise on a treadmill and another hour of
resistance exercise. Obviously, you can’t lift weights in space, so a machine simulates the
strain of lifting as on Earth.

5. Due to gravity on Earth, the movement on Earth is not affecting the life here. But in ISS,
with no gravity, did it feel like you were travelling at 17,000mph?

Answer: Well, it depends. If you are above an ocean, for example, which happened often, it
doesn’t look like you are going very fast. But if you want to take a picture of something
specific, then you understand how precise you need to be. I’m always on space time now.
When I’m at home in the evening, and I look outside and see a sunset or moon. I see a nice
picture and think, ‘Okay, I’m going to get my camera and I’ll take a picture in 30 minutes’. In
space if you see the moon and you like it, you better take that picture in the next ten seconds
because otherwise it’s gone. A good sunset is eight seconds and you think, ‘Oh, that’s a nice
sunset, I’ll just get my camera, I need a picture now, where’s that camera!’ If you take out the
card or wrong lens, then it’s gone. This is how I mainly perceived speed on the ISS. You don’t
feel anything physically on the ISS or the Soyuz capsule though. I remember when we
detached from the station on Soyuz coming back to Earth, there is a moment in which the
engine fires and you slow down and go into the atmosphere, and the capsule breaks up into
three pieces. You are in the middle, the only one that gets to Earth; the others burn up in the
atmosphere. At that point you are tumbling, finishing with a braking burn. The capsule has
separated and you are waiting to be captured by the atmosphere. Then you look outside and
realise you’re tumbling. It’s not a nice feeling. Are we supposed to be tumbling, you think. If
you don’t look outside you don’t feel it.

6. How do you move around in the ISS? Since you float, due to lack of gravity, does it take
effort to move around?

Answer: This is a great question because like most of us, I too, initially thought of it as flying
around. Sort of like a bird, but without the need to flap your wings. We just push off
something and move around. You need your hands to guide you so that you don’t hit
something, even though we do hit anything while moving around the space station anyway.
It takes a while to float around the ISS, but we get used to it. At first, we are bumping into
things and flying around without any control. But have got used to it now. Floating now feels
just as easy as walking down the hallway.
7. What is your daily routine in space?

Answer: My morning routine is pretty similar to the one down here on Earth since I still have
the same hygiene needs, the way those needs are met just looks slightly different because of
the microgravity in space. I clean up for the day using the items in my personal hygiene kit,
including what NASA calls “rinseless” shampoo, which was originally developed for hospital
patients who were unable to take a shower. To use the toilet we have to position ourselves
on the toilet using leg restraints and good aim. The toilet works like a vacuum cleaner to suck
air and waste into the commode. Each astronaut has a personal urinal funnel that attaches to
the hose’s adapter and sucks air and urine through it into a wastewater tank. After wrapping
up my morning routine, I work on my assignments for the day with my team. We spend days
working on science experiments that require input, monitoring projects that are controlled
from the ground and taking part in medical experiments to figure out how well our bodies
adjust to living in space for long periods of time. Since we live where they work, it’s also our
responsibility to help keep the ISS in tip-top shape. Much like homeowners do routine
maintenance and other work around the house to protect the good health of our home, crew
members are tasked with regularly checking support systems and cleaning filters, updating
computer equipment and even taking out the trash. Mission Control Centre also monitors the
ISS from the ground and sends instructions via email or voice message each day about any
work that may need to be done around the Space Station. If a task calls for it -- for example,
batteries need to be replaced on an external area of the ISS—one of the member of the team
may have to suit up and conduct a spacewalk.

8. What kind of food do you eat? Do you cook ‘Space Food’?

Answer: We eat three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nutritionists ensure the food
we eat provides us with a balanced supply of vitamins and minerals. Calorie requirements
differs for every individual based on his or her mission. For instance, a small woman would
require only about 1,900 calories a day, while a large man would require about 3,200 calories.
We choose from many types of foods such as fruits, nuts, peanut butter, chicken, beef,
seafood, candy, brownies, etc. We also have coffee, tea, orange juice, fruit punches and
lemonade.
Other foods require adding water, such as macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. Of course, an
oven is provided in the space station to heat foods to the proper temperature. There are no
refrigerators in space, so space food must be stored and prepared properly to avoid spoilage,
especially on longer missions. Condiments, such as ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, are
provided. Salt and pepper are available but only in a liquid form. This is because we can't
sprinkle salt and pepper on our food in space as the salt and pepper would simply float away.
There is a danger they could clog air vents, contaminate equipment or get stuck in eyes,
mouth or nose.
9. How to communicate with the your family when you are on ISS?

Answer: WE have computers up there connected to networks. So, we type emails, have video
calls, and normal voice calls, just the way you do it at home. Mission control in Houston
receives our emails and messages through satellite and then sends them out to our family
and friends. Likewise, any message in any form go through Mission Control and then reaches
us, in the ISS, via a satellite.

10. What is your opinion on space tourism?

Answer: Space tourism is definitely coming and I am very, very excited about it. I think it is
going to be a memorable and exciting adventure for everybody who participates. The more
people that can get up to space to look back at planet Earth, I believe, the better off we’re all
going to be. As soon as I reached orbit and looked out of the window, the first thought I had
was, “I wish my husband, my children, my parents, my family and friends could see this.” I
wanted everybody to be able to see the perspective I just had. If anybody looked out of the
window for even 15-20 seconds, it would change you forever and how you view planet Earth.
Something of a holy grail for space travel at the moment, reusable launch systems for orbital
vehicles are set to dramatically lower the cost of leaving Earth’s atmosphere, opening the
doors to many exciting space initiatives which, while theoretically possible, are currently too
expensive to be practical. I believe, It will also make routine space missions, such as launching
satellites and resupplying the International Space Station, far more economical.

Thank you for your valuable time Captain Williams! I hope you the best for your future and
next space expedition!