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Just retired NASA astronaut Sunita Williams said the upcoming Moon ngo nether the Artemis programme volition springiness her FOMO (fear of missing out), adjacent portion she finds joyousness exploring Earth and each the places she glimpsed from up determination successful the sky.
On the inaugural evening of the Kerala Literature Festival connected Thursday (January 22, 2026), Ms. Williams arsenic she reflected connected her 27-year vocation — the awe of seeing Earth from orbit, the teamwork that built the International Space Station (ISS) and the elemental joys she missed successful space.
“Who doesn’t privation to spell to the Moon... That was the full crushed I wanted to articulation NASA successful the archetypal place. So yes, of course, I volition person FOMO (fear of missing out), but I americium besides excited to spot my friends bash this, to spot my chap quality beings instrumentality this step,” Ms. Williams said during a league titled Dreams Reach Orbit.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is set to motorboat Artemis II, its archetypal crewed Moon ngo since 1972. Four astronauts volition orbit the Moon successful 2026.
“I person besides discovered immoderate truly large places connected Earth that I hadn’t visited erstwhile I was successful space. I person to capable my time, and I program to bash truthful by travelling each astir — Kerala is 1 of them,” she told the the starstruck assemblage packed into the venue.
The 60-year-old precocious hung up her boots — and 4 abstraction suits.
In a stellar 27-year career, she logged 608 days successful space, the 2nd astir for a NASA astronaut, and shares the sixth-longest azygous American spaceflight of 286 days with Butch Wilmore during NASA’s Starliner and Crew-9 missions.
She has besides completed 9 spacewalks, totalling 62 hours and 6 minutes, ranking arsenic the astir spacewalk clip by a pistillate and fourth-most connected the all-time cumulative spacewalk duration list.
“The enactment of fearfulness truly ne'er entered my head. What entered my caput was the spot I had successful the radical connected the ground, the spot I had successful my person and workfellow Butch Wilmore, who was sitting close adjacent to me, and the spot helium had successful maine — and however we were going to lick this problem,” Ms. Williams said.
Despite each her method mastery and unwavering teamwork, she said she missed the simple, tactile joys of beingness connected Earth.
While she could support up with her household done video calls and adjacent enjoyed pursuing the latest quality and rumours, determination were things Ms. Williams couldn’t regenerate from orbit — the brushed rainfall connected her skin, the upwind brushing her face, the consciousness of soil beneath her feet, and, astir of all, the institution of her dogs.
“I look astatine our planet, and not lone bash I consciousness the heartbeat of each the people, family, and friends I know, but besides the animals that I love. It’s astonishing to spot them successful enactment present connected our planet. This is our satellite wherever they live, wherever the food swim, wherever each the trees grow. And not being capable to beryllium portion of that... that was profoundly painful,” she added.
Born to a Gujarati father, Deepak Pandya, from Jhulasan successful Mehsana district, and a Slovenian mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, connected September 19, 1965, successful Euclid, Ohio, Ms. Williams took the juncture to convey India for embracing her arsenic its daughter.
Recalling her archetypal abstraction mission, she admitted she was initially sceptical erstwhile her begetter told her that radical crossed the state were praying for her harmless return.
“I said to him, ‘I don’t judge you. This can’t happen.’ And then, erstwhile I came home, I really saw paper articles, and I realised it was true. A person of excavation was successful the Himalayas astatine an simple schoolhouse and told me, ‘your representation is astatine the school.’ This is truthful heartfelt, truthful warming to me, that I person been taken arsenic a girl of India,” she said.
Ms. Williams archetypal launched aboard abstraction shuttle Discovery with STS-116 successful December 2006 and returned aboard Atlantis with the STS-117 crew. In 2012, she lifted disconnected from the Baikonur Cosmodrome successful Kazakhstan for a 127-day ngo arsenic portion of Expedition 32/33 and went connected to service arsenic abstraction presumption commandant for Expedition 33.
The four-day KLF literate extravaganza is hosting implicit 400 speakers, including Nobel Laureates Abdulrazak Gurnah and Abhijit Banerjee, authors Kiran Desai and Shashi Tharoor, historiographer Romila Thapar, essayist Pico Iyer, Jnanpith victor Pratibha Ray, sports icons Rohan Bopanna and Ben Johnson, and Wikipedia laminitis Jimmy Wales.
KLF 2026, present successful its ninth edition, volition travel to a adjacent connected January 25, 2026.
