A warm embrace and a touch of nostalgia marked the meeting between veteran astronaut Sunita Williams and the late Kalpana Chawla’s 90-year-old mother in Delhi on Tuesday.

Kalpana Chawla, India-born and a US astronaut, was one of the seven crew members who perished in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry in February 2003. She was the first woman of Indian origin to travel to space, and her death was widely mourned in India.

Sunita Williams, 60, attended an interactive session titled “Eyes on the Stars, Feet on the Ground” at the American Center in Delhi. During the session, she reflected on a recent mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which had been extended unexpectedly due to a technical glitch with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

ALSO READ | Strongest solar storm in nearly ‘20 years’ from Sun disrupts GPS | WATCH

“Okay, so I’m just gonna highlight a couple things here. Again, amazing time of innovation. Three different suits, three different spacecraft, three different rockets. What a great way to contrast and compare… 250 years of innovation working with our international partners,” Williams said.

Eight-day mission to nine months

She recounted how her originally eight-day mission stretched to nine months after the Starliner experienced thruster failures:

“That happened in June of 2024. We waited over the summer to figure out whether or not we were going to be able to fly the spacecraft back… We lost five of our thrusters… We had to actually take over manually, working hand in hand, collaboration with our mission control to restart. I think of it as control alt delete… In the meantime, we had a Dragon crew up there, and we had a Soyuz crew up there… We were stressing the limits of the space station a little bit with 12 at times… All that collaboration, it’s made for about seven people. And so… we were going to come back with a Dragon crew… That’s the ultimate team sport.”

ALSO READ | NASA astronaut Sunita Williams retires after 27-year career with space agency

As the nearly hour-long event concluded, Williams, dressed in her trademark deep blue space overalls and space-themed canvas shoes, stepped down to greet Kalpana Chawla’s mother, Sanyogita Chawla, seated in the front row, offering her a heartfelt hug. The meeting, which also included Chawla’s sister Deepa, rekindled fond memories, with Williams expressing her desire to remain in touch.

Williams, born to a Gujarati father, Deepak Pandya, and a Slovenian mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, in Euclid, Ohio, said returning to India felt like a homecoming. She is scheduled to participate in the ninth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF), starting 22 January.

Kalpana Chawla’s mother 

On the sidelines of the event, Sanyogita Chawla, Kalpana Chawla’s mother spoke to PTI, recalling Williams’ support after her daughter’s death:

“She (Williams) is like a family member… After the Columbia disaster, she used to come to our home for three months, staying from morning till night, offering comfort to our family in grief.”

She also reminisced about the close bond between the two astronauts:

“Williams and Kalpana used to encourage each other as astronauts to grow further in their shared profession… She (Kalpana) had brought her own treasure. She taught us so much. What can we say?”

ALSO READ | ‘Coming to India feels like back home,’ says astronaut Sunita Williams | WATCH

Sanyogita Chawla added: “She used to say, ‘Humanity is the only religion’, and she never took any other name. When we used to ask her, what is your religion? She would say, ‘My religion is work’.”