How Sunita Williams chose space

Brut India

“Cooler than Tom Cruise.” In this address from 2015, Sunita Williams recounted how she became an astronaut even though that wasn’t her original plan.

Transcript

00:00Of course, I wanted to be Tom Cruise, that's the cooler of the two, right?

00:03But for the first time in my life, met astronauts and realized what they do and how cool of

00:09a job and how fun it would be, even better than Tom Cruise.

00:11So I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was growing up, and that's true, I had no knowledge

00:16of the space program, no, nothing, you know, that never crossed my mind that I would do

00:21that.

00:22But my brother recommended camping, so literally, so that's why I went to the Naval Academy

00:26and then found that there's a lot of different things that you can do there, fly, dive, whatever,

00:32opened a door that I had never dreamed was possible, and flying helicopters, of course,

00:37I wanted to be Tom Cruise, that's the cooler of the two, right?

00:41But I ended up flying helicopters, but helicopters were pretty amazing, and that door which was

00:45given to me was opened, and then I realized that understanding how things work and being

00:52an engineer, you know, lend itself to understanding how helicopters work.

00:56So I went to test pilot school, and that was the place that brought me to Johnson Space

01:00Center where I, for the first time in my life, met astronauts and realized what they do and

01:07how cool of a job and how fun it would be, even better than Tom Cruise.

01:11So I think we're in that position right now.

01:13So my point there was, you know, the path doesn't have to necessarily be straight, but

01:19don't limit yourself by just the things that you know.

01:22Go out there and try different things, and some of the things I've just talked about,

01:26I think I would have considered maybe failures when I was 17 to 25, but actually they ended

01:32up leading me down a path to get to some pretty cool stuff that we get to do.

01:37Something my dad used to say to us all the time is, stop and take a look at the foliage,

01:40and from space that sounds sort of funny, but I think I translate that a little bit

01:44to just take a moment out and enjoy the journey.

01:48Don't just get to the end point, and the biggest point I could talk about that is coming

01:53home in a Soyuz.

01:55So you know, you're up there for however long, and then you're getting ready to come back.

02:00It's a little anti-climatic at first when you're first getting into leaving the space

02:05station and closing the hatch, sort of just hanging out there in your long underwear all

02:10together, chitter-chatting a little bit as the hatches are closing and going through

02:13all the leak checks.

02:15And then you're like, okay, something exciting is going to come up, so I'm just going to

02:18go sit in my seat for a little while, and you're going to undock from the space station

02:24and start to move away.

02:25Okay, we did that, and now something that we never trained for in the simulator is sitting

02:30there for a whole orbit, and you're sitting there all squished up, and you're going, oh

02:36my God, when is this ever going to end?

02:38But if you are smart, which we've passed on to each other, you have the list of everything

02:43that's going to happen, and before you know it, some really awesome things are going to

02:47happen.

02:48The ride home in a Soyuz is spectacular.

02:51You're so close to the window.

02:53If you're sitting on the right seat, your face is this far from the window.

02:56If you're in the left seat, your face is this far from the window.

02:59The commander is nicely safe tucked in the middle.

03:02Somehow the Russians picked that seat.

03:03I'm not really sure why.

03:05I saw their knuckleheads are pretty close to the fire.

03:10So anyway, so the next fun thing that starts to happen is the de-orbit burn, and you're

03:16pretty nervous about that because that's the thing that's really going to bring you

03:19back to Earth, and so if you're sitting in the left seat, your finger's on the button

03:22to start or stop the engine and go through all the procedures, and your heart's beating

03:26a little.

03:27You don't want to mess it up.

03:28So that's the adrenaline that just starts to happen just because like any race, you're

03:31getting a little bit nervous for stuff, and so that starts.

03:35Then the next thing that happens after the de-orbit burn, the vehicle, of course, starts

03:39slowing down and getting into the atmosphere.

03:42The pink stuff starts coming around the windows, which are, again, right next to your head.

03:46Actually, the little cover that's on the window burns up right next to your head, and you

03:51see the stuff flying by, and then separation happens, and the whole either side below you

03:58on your butt and above your head, pyros are going off.

04:00Things are blowing past the spacecraft as you're coming down, and you're just entering

04:05into the atmosphere, and you can't talk anymore with the ground because you're going through

04:08all the plasma and stuff.

04:10Then it seems like, okay, things are calming down a little bit until the parachute opens,

04:15and then you are like the walnut in the shell, and you're bouncing around underneath there.

04:19I'm just hoping the commercial crew guys take some lessons learned from the Russians.

04:24You really do get stuck nicely in that seat, so you're not the thing that's bouncing around,

04:28and just the spacecraft is bouncing around like crazy.

04:32Then finally, that starts to settle out a little bit, and you're just floating down,

04:37waiting, waiting, waiting until you get down to the ground.

04:40I thought I would outsmart everybody and go, you know what, I am not going to wait for

04:44that little landing light.

04:45I'm going to know when we're going to land exactly because the pressure will say 760,

04:51which I think Sergey actually called down to us because you were the chief of GCTC at

04:56the time, and warned us what the pressure would be at the landing site.

04:59I'm like, I'm going to wait until that pressure says it, then I'll know.

05:02Well, I forgot sensor's lag, you know?

05:06All of a sudden, that light comes on, and I'm not really worried about it, and I'm not

05:09really ready.

05:10The thing you have to worry about with landing is keep the elbows in, get the tongue out

05:14of the teeth.

05:15Those are the primary things.

05:16Bam, 20G, drop to the ground, bounce around for a little while.

05:20I said, oh, darn it, they were right.

05:23I think with all of my replay of the entry, my point being is really don't just pray to

05:32hit the ground.

05:33Enjoy the whole ride.

05:35Enjoy the training to get there.

05:37Enjoy the time you're up in space.

05:39Enjoy working with all the scientists and the people that make it all happen.

05:42And then, finally, enjoy being back home with family.

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