In 2006, Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut and United States Navy officer, floated about the International Space Station (ISS) 220 miles above the earth’s surface. Looking out the large window — known to astronauts as the Cupola — for the first time, Williams gazed at Earth from space.
“It was overwhelming. I’m not joking… the first time up there, you look out the window and you’re like, ‘Wow, those guys were right! The earth is round,’” said Williams during Wednesday’s All-School Meeting (ASM).
Williams, this year’s Earth Day Speaker, shared her experiences exploring the depths of space and the challenges she faced as an flight engineer on the ISS. After, Williams answered questions during a discussion over lunch in Paresky Commons.
Williams made her first journey to the ISS aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery with the crew of the STS-116. There she joined the Expedition 14 crew as a flight engineer. Prior to arriving at the ISS, Williams went through eight years of extensive training to prepare her for life in space. Williams made a second journey to the ISS in July of 2012 and stayed for four months.
After starting her professional career in the military as a helicopter pilot, Williams’s curiosity regarding the aeronautics of helicopters grew, leading her to attend test-pilot school. While at test-pilot school, Williams went to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to meet astronauts for the first time. After being encouraged to apply by friends who had already been accepted into the astronaut program, Williams took the leap and applied.
“The thing that comes back to me was ‘the only one who’s telling me that I’m not going to be an astronaut right now is me,’” said Williams.
Williams underwent basic astronaut training. Stressing the mental preparation required for space exploration, Williams said she attended the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). At the NOLS, NASA astronauts explored the wilderness to learn many team-building skills, as well as survival skills that could be translated into work on the ISS.
“It is a good way to learn that not everybody learns the same way. Not everybody thinks the same way when you’re in that type of environment,” said Williams.
In addition to completing a NOLS course, Williams lived underwater for nine days in a habitat that imitated the effects of space on the human body.
“It’s like you’re stuck at the Depths of the Key Largo, you can’t get out; you are with a certain group of people and you are doing science experiments,” said Williams.
“The main goal really is to test yourself, so you know which buttons get pushed on you, that piss you off, and you can sort of anticipate that when you’re living in space,” she added.
Williams said that there were many challenges that she could not have anticipated, with one of those being sleep deprivation.
“You block out a time for eight hours, and you probably don’t get as good sleep, so you probably get anywhere from five-and-a-half to seven hours of sleep,” said Williams.
Even though Williams was busy carrying out her duties as an engineer on the ISS, she still made time for two of her passions, athletics and philanthropy. In 2007, Williams was able to participate in the Boston Marathon from space. Running the race on a modified treadmill with a harness over shoulders to counteract the effects of zero gravity, Williams ran the race in four hours, 24 minutes.
“I like to work out. I think it’s important and something we have to do as astronauts because of problems with bone density and muscle loss and just being normal when we reach the next planet, eventually,” said Williams.
Though she is now retired, Williams said that she “would love to go back out [to space].”
“I’m lucky I have had some really good times in space,” said Williams. Williams said if she were to return to space, she would want to become more involved with social media.
