Sushil Kutty
NASA astronaut, Indian-American Sunita Williams, smiled and waved on returning to Earth from somewhere in Space where she was stranded for 286 days. No, Sunita Williams didn’t stop in Space to gaze at the sky all around her but because she didn’t have control of the circumstances, which is not always the situation in Space. Sunita’s extended stay was necessitated due to problems developing in the Boeing Starliner capsule that took her to Space.
For Sunita Williams it wasn’t rocket science. A bonus coming her way was that she set a record for topping in notching the most spacewalking time for a female astronaut. Tells you a lot about gender, which has its say both on Earth as well as in Space.
Sunita Williams had a tough nine-month stay on the International Space Station along with fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, who also returned to Earth with her, both of them accompanied by astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Sunita “beamed with joy” when she stepped out of SpaceX’s Dragon X capsule.
Nine months is pretty much a lifetime, ask any newborn, and Sunita was pictured “waving and smiling” though it was hard to know from looking at her whether she had put on weight or lost some kilos in the weightless space.
She appeared happy. She didn’t know there were Hindu temples across the United States petitioning the Almighty for her safe return and that celebrations had broken out in a village in Gujarat, which also happens to be Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home-state as also that of Indian Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
If only the splashdown was somewhere off the coast of Gujarat! But it wasn’t and Modi was nowhere in the frame. Besides, Modi’s pal United States President Donald J. Trump owned the triumphant return of Sunita Williams. White House proclaimed this on Social Media along with the legend: “Promise Made, Promise Kept”.
Who can argue with that? Not Prime Minister Modi who recently joined the Trump social media platform ‘Truth Social’, strengthening talk that Trump and Modi are an “item”. Modi will have to make sure he doesn’t lose sight of “Gulf of America”. The Space X capsule which brought Sunita “home” splashed down in the name-disputed waters of the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America.
The SpaceX capsule splashed into gulf “off the Florida Panhandle” ending Sunita Williams’ 286-day forced stay in Space. The 59-year-old didn’t look much worse for the wear “and tear” though. Cameras focused on her as space enthusiasts and her family kept track. Hindu gods and goddesses heaved a sigh of relief.
Williams’ return was a happy homecoming for both Americans and Indians. NASA had to adjust and Sunita also had to adjust but at the end of the day all that adjustments ended well – from NASA to ISS and back. Williams and her fellow Space travellers accomplished a very tough mission and Sunita set a record with spacewalks adding up to 62 hours.
Now, another test begins. Sunita might be put to test by “puffy face, chicken legs, and blurry vision.” Once more, Sunita Williams will have to adapt to Earth’s environment. There will be medical evaluations before she’s even allowed to meet family members.
But that wouldn’t be out of the blue, a bolt from Outer Space! Sunita returned to Earth with the political landscape entirely unrecognizable. There is a new President of the United States in her absence and Sunita will likely have to make more “adjustments”, whether to celebrate or cancel Trump’s return.
But Elon ‘Doge’ Musk’s ‘X’ is all agog with excitement, with people – most of them Indians- going overboard “congratulating Sunita for the historic feat”. It is a wonder Sunita is not the ornery ’emotional’ Indian or NASA would have rejected her halfway through the job interview.
For Elon, too, it is a “feat”: Musk owns SpaceX and Sunita Williams made it home on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft even as Musk was being hounded all over ‘X’ and his EV Tesla facing the brunt. The 17-hour journey back to Earth is a feather in Musk’s cap even if there are some Indians who are comparing SpaceX’s ‘Dragon-X capsule’ to the ‘Pushpaka Viman’, which was stolen by demon-king Ravana from Kubera, his half-brother!
Nevertheless, Musk’s ‘X’ broke out in celebratory mode, all of Musk’s recent sins forgotten including the so-called stiff-arm ‘Nazi Salute’ Musk hurled at the world from the Capitol Hill on January 20, Trump’s inauguration day. Meanwhile, on the other side of Earth – in a village called Jhulasan in Gujarat, Sunita Williams’ “native gaon” – people burst firecrackers and distributed sweets. How many Americans know Gujaratis have a sweet tooth?
Yup, stranded in Space and escaping Space are not the only things unique about Sunita Williams. Being part of “Crew-9” was also something to write home about. Sunita Williams has become an icon for women across India and schoolchildren will be writing essays on her if writing and essays survive Space and time!
The post Sunita Williams makes a huge splash in India appeared first on Daily Excelsior.