NASA astronaut Sunita Williams on space sovereignty: 'It's good for competition'

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams said that it’s good to have competition in space missions because the mysteries haven’t been entirely solved and humans need a lot of different ideas to try it out and learn from each other. In a conversation with author and public speaker Srijan Pal Singh, at a webinar organised by Dr Kalam Memorial Lecture, Williams talked about various issues related to space missions.

While answering Republic World’s question on the issue of state sovereignty in space, Williams said that astronauts leave for space as humans representing the Earth and it doesn’t really matter from where they belong. However, the 54-year-old astronaut acknowledged that competition works as a forcing function and “it’s a fire underneath the rocket to get it going essentially”.

“So I am fine with that because I think what we are going to find is - we need a lot of different ideas. It isn’t a math problem that is entirely solved. We need other people to come in with different ideas, try it out, and then we can actually learn from each other,” she said.

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Space setback

Talking about her early life and journey to NASA, Williams said that she saw her parents working hard as they had a humble beginning. She wanted to become a veterinarian but didn’t get admission in the Universities she desired. Williams’ father suggested her join Naval academy after which she joined the Navy and became a pilot.  

The NASA astronaut said that the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed all seven crew members including Kalpana Chawla, was a big setback to the United States space program. She said that the astronauts didn’t really know if they go to space on a shuttle. Williams also had the thought that though she is contributing to the program, she may never go to space.

“After the investigation, when we decided we are gonna go back to space on the shuttle, and it was our turn...to go and train...it still felt like a little bit of a dream,” said Williams.

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