Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who flew on the International Space Station’s Boeing Starliner on June 5 last year and has been stuck since due to technical problems with the spacecraft, was in for a little surprise.
Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, participant of three ISS expeditions, met astronaut Mike Massimino in India, the two took a selfie and sent it to Sunita Williams.
“She (Sunita) is one of the happiest colleagues of mine ever. Now she has been almost 8 months in the orbit. Yesterday I met a colleague of mine, Mike Massimino, from the United States and we took a selfie and we sent it to Sunita Williams,” Oleg Artemyev told NDTV.
“She replied she is very happy,” said cosmonaut Artemyev, adding that the two told her that they are looking forward to meet her in March.
Sunita Williams and her fellow astronaut Butch Willmore have been at the ISS since June. A decision was made to return Starliner to Earth without its crew, and the spacecraft successfully returned on September 6 after NASA in August said that it was “too risky” to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Sunita Williams confirmed that the Crew-10 mission is scheduled to launch from Earth on March 12 and bring them home a week later on March 19.
Pressed to answer how difficult the life of an astronaut is, Cosmonaut Artemyev said, “The life of a cosmonaut is quite a complicated one. You have to spend a lot of time training, practising. You have to be a highly motivated person and a person who is looking for something new to be in this profession.”
Cosmonaut Aetemyev said he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and presented him with both Russian and Indian flags, underscoring the great relationship between the two countries.
“Told PM Modi it’s a great pleasure to meet that friend of our Russian President Vladimir Putin and as we say in Russia, ‘A friend of my friend is my friend,'” said the cosmonaut.
“I presented to PM Modi Indian and Russian flags,” he added.
Asked if he has a message for the Indian youth, he said, “Read a lot, dream a lot and to study a lot…Learn, learn learn.”