Exclusive: Sunita Williams on why she loves samosas!

She ran a marathon in the outer space, spent an incredible time at the International Space Station—a record-breaking six-months. That’s the journey of Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams. CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai shared the journalistic 'space’ with someone who has been to space and back, quite literally.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Did you imagine before that you are such a big star here in India?

Sunita Williams: No, not really. I don't know if I am worthy enough to use the word star. I hope role model is what comes to people's mind when they associate with my name because I see a lot of myself in all these children here. I would like them to see that the things I did were not impossible. They are easy to achieve and they can do the same thing.

Rajdeep Sardesai: The past 15 days that you have been in India, you have been like the ‘Pied Piper’. Wherever you go people seem to follow you. They even put a crown on your head in your home village. Are you overwhelmed by the kind of adulation that you have got?

Sunita Williams: Yes, I am certainly overwhelmed. Everywhere that I have gone I have seen smiling faces and wide eyes and children who want to understand what we are doing in the space programme. And they all want to join in. That is what is really encouraging and uplifting.

Rajdeep Sardesai: When you were up in space, could you see India from up there?

Sunita Williams: Of course, the shape of India is very distinct. At the risk of being a little repetitive I have mentioned before in a number of interviews that our view of the planet is just spectacular. You see distinct land features like Italy and India. But you don't know where the boundaries are, those are all just written on a piece of paper. It's all in our mind.

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Rajdeep Sardesai: And every time you saw India you remembered samosas right?

Sunita Williams: Yes, most of the time (laughs). And particularly from the West side, from where my father is. It was my little piece of home whenever we flew over India.

Student: We see such a mesmerising image of the space in most of the science fiction films like Star Wars. Is space really that beautiful?

Sunita Williams: Absolutely, it is that beautiful. I get a little teary eyed every time I watch a video of my space stint. You can spend all day just looking out of the window there. We had windows that looked down towards the Earth and the planet is spectacular. We also had windows on the sides that could look out in the Russian docking compartment and you could see the edge and curvature of the Earth. Again you can just spend hours looking out and finding constellations and planets.

Anubha Bhonsle Was it hard to say goodbye?

Sunita Williams: Absolutely, it was heart-breaking.

Student: Could you describe the blackout that occurs when you re-enter the atmosphere and you lose contact with NASA. And also explain why does it occur.

Sunita Williams: For us it is a little bit transparent because everything is going as planned. But it happens all the time when spacecrafts come back into the atmosphere. You are going at such a high speed and entering the thickness of air just like you are putting your hand through water. It's a big resistance.

The faster you go the density of the air grows thicker and thicker on the spacecraft and the heat is like friction. Then there are air molecules going fast against the surface of the spacecraft, which creates plasma around the spacecraft. Because you have antennas in the spacecraft that plasma covers and so they are not able to receive signals from the ground. But this is only for sometime.

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Rajdeep Sardesai: Let me just follow-up that question with another small one. Vineeta from Bangalore posted this question on www.ibnlive.com - were you scared? Was there ever a moment?

Sunita Williams: We trained thoroughly for the mission as you probably must have seen on some of the videos. It's many years of training and we know all about the spacecraft. You have to understand it's a little bit risky but we all know about it when we sign up for it. In general I wasn't scared.

But there were times when I was definitely scared. And I think there are times, which are inherent to us as we have grown up on Earth. When I was on my first space walk I climbed to the top of the space station, which really makes no difference whether you are on the bottom or the top because you are just floating. You could not fall but I couldn't get over the feeling that I might fall. That is because we live here on the Earth and we understand gravity. So, that was pretty much the biggest time that I was scared.

Anubha Bhonsle: In fact, I believe there are loads of anecdotal tales of how astronauts come back to Earth and they keep putting things in the air thinking they will stay where they are and not fall. We now have a question, which was most asked on ibnlive.com: How safe is the international space station from meteors, asteroids and things like that?

Sunita Williams: That's a great question and you know we have to worry about that type of stuff particularly micro-meteorites which were pretty close to the Earth's atmosphere. They were only 400 kilometere above the Earth. So, more than likely big pieces were not going to hit us.

But we do have to worry about what we call 'space junk'. These are things that have come off other spacecraft or things that we have inadvertently let go off maybe. So, the whole spacecraft has a protective covering on it. Our space suits also have a protective covering. We plan for such hits and that we are able to survive them.

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Anubha Bhonsle: It is not just about 300-400 children who are here in this auditorium who want to ask questions. We have our live links up on most cities across the country. There is a student from Mumbai who wants to ask a question.

Rituja (Mumbai): Do our units of time hold good in outer space? And how does the time pass according to minutes, hours and space?

Sunita Williams: We use time on Earth because we are interacting with people on Earth. We have a control centre in Houston and Moscow and another one in Alabama for our experiments. We are soon going to have a control centre in Germany and also in Japan. So, we try to stay on time with Earth. There are thousands of people who are working on the space program with us. We use Greenwich meantime. Now I think the question is alluding to Einstein's theory of relativity. So, I don't think I came back any younger. I am about the same age even though I was up there for six-and-a-half months.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What was your most enjoyable moment?

Sunita Williams: That would be probably during my spacewalk. When we first went as we call it 'out of the hatch' it was all business because we trained very thoroughly for it. When I went outside and I was getting into my work right away we had a moment when the ground was discussing some tasks that we were doing. And I looked out and saw the Earth flying by me, I just couldn't believe it. So, that was the first moment that was enjoyable. But there are so many that I can recall.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What is the one thing that you missed most when you were up in space, besides samosas?

Sunita Williams: (laughs) Well, I have mentioned my dog and the reason I took his name is because he connotes a whole bunch of interesting things on the Earth like a walk in the beach, in the woods and feeling the wind on your face. PAGE_BREAK

Student: What was the toughest moment out there?

Sunita Williams: One of the most challenging times we had was when we had the crossover between Expedition 14 and 15 and I remained. One of the biggest things there is when you see people leave with whom you have spent a lot of time there. It's like leaving family when you go away to college.

It sort of felt as if my family was leaving me behind but I knew I had two new crew members who were my friends and I worked with them before. Second part of that was that I felt a lot of responsibility as I felt I was the most experienced person there. I needed to completely know how the spacecraft worked. The two before me had a lot of experience and taught me quite a bit. So, I was sort of confident but it was a little bit nerve-wracking to be the guy in-charge.

Student: We heard about Freeze-Dry foods, how does it taste?

Sunita Williams: We had to eat the Freeze-Dry foods for a reason because it doesn’t weigh that much due to the water not being there. It costs less to take it up in space because every pound is expensive to lift into space. Once we get it up there, we hydrate it with water.

We in fact go to food tasting classes in US and also in Russia in order to try all the food that we eat in space, and the foods are ranked. We get to take food that has got a ranking of 6/10. We don’t pick on every single thing we eat, the food is assorted for us on the basis of variety.

I had Indian food once a month. We got to eat a different variety of food including lasagna, and we used to have waffle and scrambled eggs for breakfast. The food was quite good.

Student: You took up the marathon in spite of knowing about the health hazards it could lead to, what inspired you to undertake it and what are the changes in the body that occur while doing it?

Sunita Williams: I qualified for the Boston marathon as the marathon is a special one. I did not want to miss on that. I challenged my sister to get my entry in her and she had to run it on the ground where the weather was cold and I ran it up in space.

I want to take up the marathon because it is very important for everyone to know the significance of fitness and I wanted to highlight that. Astronauts have already been qualified to space but they still have to work out. It is very important in daily life just to take care of your body and it is also important for us to take responsibilities for our own health.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What is easier, running in space or running on the ground?

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Sunita Williams: It is different in both cases. When you run on a treadmill you have a harness on and you have protection on your waist. As a result it puts pressure on your hips with the bunjee system connecting you to the waist. When you are in space you have a tendency to lose your muscles and bone in your hips and feet because you don’t have to support them like we do walking around on earth, so running in space is different in earth than in space.

Anubha Bhosle: Space shuttle is limited in space. It is an example of great scientific intelligence but what about the daily chores, specially the use of the daily toilet facilities?

Sunita Williams: We don’t have a gravity- assist in space so we have to take the help of something that helps direct everything in the right direction. We have a vacuum system that has holes and a knob. The first step is to turn the knob on and then there is a small pot where the refuse can be dispensed then put into a bag that has elastic and closes up nicely. We finally push the bag into a container. We take the container and put it into a progress vehicle that comes up automatically. The vehicle is part of the Russian Space programme developed in Moscow.

Student: How did yoga help you stay in space?

Sunita Williams: I was not as diligent about yoga but I did do lot of stretching exercises because you crack a lot in space and your body can get stiff so I did some stretching exercises in yoga type postures that helped me sleep. It is difficult to sleep in space. We are very used to having a pillow and we have a bed to sleep on earth but in space there was a feeling that my head was feeling backwards. My neck got very stiff so did some breathing techniques too.

Student: I come from Karnal and a school where Kalpana Chawla studied. We are proud of you not because you are from space but because you have made us think high.

Sunita Williams: Thank you. I have to say one thing about Kalpana. I think. I am following in the footsteps of a legacy and I appreciate everybody’s interest in space. It started with Dr Rakesh Sharma and Kalpana ofcourse. I am lucky enough to be able to come to India and talk to you about the venture.

Rajdeep Sardesai: How much did the fact of Kalpana Chawla’s tragic influence you to go out in space? Did you ever feel that you had to complete a mission that she had left incomplete?

Sunita Williams: I absolutely felt that way. One part of the mission was coming back to India and talking to the students because I know she would have wanted to do that and she had planned to do that after her last flight. And also the legacy of the whole crew was to continue on in space exploration.

Dhwani (Ahmedabad): As a woman was it tougher for you and did you have to face discrimination to face the stage where you are now?

Sunita Williams: My whole career has been more in a male-dominated career path or career fields. I never thought about that. One should not have limitations while choosing a career.

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Rajdeep Sardesai: You are making it sound very easy but is there any form of discrimination that you have ever faced being a woman? Did they ever say to you ‘these are things a woman can’t do.’

Sunita Williams: I have never heard people say that to me. There is probably a disparity in the number. We have 25 per cent of women in the office and 75 per cent are men. People are biased that it’s a man’s job to be an astronaut. It is a difficult for us when it comes to raising a family as we have to travel a lot in fact we travel out of the planet. It was six months in my case and away from the family and it was a little bit difficult. But I think that you have to understand your priorities.

Student: Was it difficult for you to adjust in the normal routine again after coming back?

Sunita Williams: Absolutely. You are in space with only two other people and suddenly you come back to thousands people it is sure intimidating. There are also some physical issues I faced as I told you that you spine stretches and since your head weighs down, you tend to get a little bit taller. And when you get back to earth the spine shrinks back and so you experience a backache. The fluid in my ears that was used to floating in space underwent gravity so every time I turned my head I felt sick. The potential issue was that if I didn’t exercise then there was tendency for my bones and my heart to shrink.

Rajdeep Sardesai: When you were back on earth did you ever look up the stars and say, ‘Hey! I was up there a few days ago.’

Sunita Williams: That definitely did happen. I miss it when I look up particularly when it is a clear day. When the day is clear I think it would be beautiful to look down on earth.

Student: Most astronauts have seen UFOs in space. Did you to have the same experience and do you believe in them?

Sunita Williams: I didn’t see any UFOs while I was up there but just keep in your mind about all the millions of stars orbiting around one star. Think about all the stars that are there so I think that there might be some out there.

Student: If you get an opportunity to take one person to space then who would it be?

Sunita Williams: I think I would choose anyone who would have any animosity towards somebody else because once you get up into space and you look down at the planet. I think all that feeling of dislike for any body else will go away because they will see how beautiful and peaceful our planet is.

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Student: Science and technology has developed so much and the life of man is risky when he goes to space. Robots can do your work as they can do research on space, why are you people going out there?

Sunita Williams: To have humans in space is a necessity. We have robots on Mars like we do right now but they do not make decisions about going to the next place. People have to make the decisions for them. They also don’t have all of the knowledge. They just look around and decide what will be the next logical step to do and what is the next thing that would lead to the next question. It is essential to have humans there to make things happen.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Let me get you in a rapid fire round. What is your favourite sport?

Sunita Williams: My favourite sport is swimming.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So it is not cricket. The day you landed in India is the day India started winning in the T20 World Cup. You have been the lucky charm for the Indian cricket team.

Sunita Williams: Thank you very much but cricket is complicated, I am not sure that I understand it.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What is your favourite food?

Sunita Williams: Most probably it is samosas and icecream.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Who is your favourite person?

Sunita Williams: I have to say my parents and Mahatma Gandhi is my role model.

Rajdeep Sardesai: You have done it all but it is still one thing that you would still love to do?

Sunita Williams: (jokes) When I grow up I want to be a school teacher.

Rajdeep Sardesai: You have met the Prime Minister and India now plans to have space scholarships, do you foresee a day Sunita where possibly you take Indian astronauts along with you?

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Sunita Williams: Many students have asked that question and I hope that I shall be able to do that. Firstly studying Maths and Science is the first thing to being an astronaut, being an engineer, being a scientist, being a doctor and being a veterinarian. Use your voice to bring back to the Indian government that you want to get involved.

As we leave the planets we would like to go as humans not necessarily people from a certain country so we need to get all the countries involved so India needs to have astronauts.

Anubha Bhosle: How Indian do you actually feel?

Sunita Williams: In the words of Kalpana I feel like the citizen of the universe. First and foremost I have attributes from America as I grew up there. I have attributes of India from my father. That is something one brings to the table and that is the diversity that adds to every single successful venture. I feel very Indian to that regards and I bring a little Indian culture to the space.

Student: What is your message to the woman of India?

Sunita Williams: There are boundaries but do not think that the boundaries are real and do not think that there is more opportunities for men. Look back at yourself and understand who is giving you those limitations. You are giving yourself those limitations. May be the people around you are giving you those limitations but those are all in people’s brains. It is all a perception that is not real so I think the women can do anything that they like to do.

Student: There are prospects that an asteroids would hit the earth in the near future so what does NASA plan to do for that?

Sunita Williams: We are working on trying to launch some spacecraft that would go there and try to alter the path of asteroids because we don’t want to have something like that happen.

Student: In the near future would you like to come to India and start an institution as you said that you want to be a school teacher? Do you plan to promote your knowledge on space here and like to be associated with ISRO?

Sunita Williams: I would like to come back to India on a regular basis probably for some type of school course and may be visit schools all around country and get into the classroom. I may want get involved in a large forum where we could find what students are thinking about and help enhance their programmes. I think I would like to do that on an annual basis.

Student: How did you manage to brush your teeth there?

Sunita Williams: It is an interesting question as there is no sink there. Water does interesting things but it sticks to your toothbrush because of surface tension and your toothpaste stick to the brush. We have two options after brushing: spit into a towel and throw that away or swallow it.