Astronaut Sunita Williams greets India on occasion of 74th Independence Day

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams sent her greetings to Indians and Indian-Americans to celebrate the occasion of India’s 74th Independence Day. She said, "NASA and ISRO have cooperated in many different areas, including Earth and space science. Additionally, NASA has provided deep space communication and navigation support for ISRO’s missions to the Moon and Mars". She heaped praise towards ISRO and said that she was looking closely at India’s first human spaceflight mission, the Gaganyaan mission. She said, "Exploring space is a global enterprise where we all need to work together. I am especially interested in following the progress of Gaganyaan.”.

Top American senators, Democrat Mark Warner and Republican John Cornyn, also sent their wishes to Indians. Democrat Warner, Co-Chair of the powerful Senate India Caucus said, “I want to congratulate the people in India on 75 years of Independence. The strength of the relationship between the world's two biggest democracies is more important now than ever.". Democrat Warner chairs the largest bilateral caucus in the United States Senate. Cornyn said he understands the importance of the first-hand importance of a strong relationship between the United States and India. He said, “I'm proud to see how our ties have strengthened over the recent years. It was 74 years ago that India emancipated itself from British rule and began a long and storied journey toward becoming the biggest democracy in the world.”

About Sunita Williams

Sunita Williams' paternal family is from the Mehsana district in Gujarat. Her maternal great-grandmother, born in Slovenia, immigrated to America as an 11-year-old with her mother. Sunita Williams joined NASA as an astronaut in 1998 and was a part of two space missions Expeditions, 14/15 and 32/33. Williams is currently training for the first post-certification mission of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which is the second crewed flight for the spacecraft and it will be her third long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station. Along with her crewmates, Williams is closely working with Boeing to engineer their new aerospace system. They are looking to develop a system that will provide roundtrip crew transportation services to the International Space Station and add the ability to launch humans into space from America using SpaceX’s CrewDragon.