On the first evening of the Kerala Literature Festival on Thursday, a crescent moon glimmered over the water as if eavesdropping, while hundreds gathered to hear Williams reflect on her 27-year career — the wonder of viewing Earth from orbit, the collaboration that constructed the ISS, and the simple pleasures she longed for while in space.
”Who doesn’t want to go to the Moon? That was the whole reason I aspired to join NASA in the first place. So yes, naturally, I will experience FOMO (fear of missing out), but I’m also thrilled to see my friends embark on this journey, to witness my fellow humans take this step,” Williams expressed during a session titled Dreams Reach Orbit.
NASA is preparing to launch Artemis II, its first crewed Moon mission since 1972, with four astronauts set to orbit the Moon in 2026.
”I have uncovered some wonderful spots on Earth that I hadn’t seen while in space. I need to keep busy, and I intend to do so by traveling everywhere — Kerala is one of those destinations,” she told the captivated audience filling the venue. The 60-year-old recently concluded her career — and set aside four space suits.
Throughout her impressive 27-year career, she accumulated 608 days in space, the second most for a NASA astronaut, and shares the sixth-longest single American spaceflight of 286 days with Butch Wilmore during NASA’s Starliner and Crew-9 missions.
She has also accomplished nine spacewalks, totaling 62 hours and 6 minutes, holding the record for the most spacewalk time by a woman and ranking fourth in all-time cumulative spacewalk duration.
Unflappable and displaying nerves of steel, Williams downplays her accomplishments. For her, it’s all part of the role. Nothing “extraordinary,” not even the challenging period when an eight-day mission to the International Space Station turned into a nine-month journey due to issues arising during their Boeing Starliner flight.
Her unwavering confidence in her training and her colleagues kept fear at bay, even when five out of the spacecraft’s 20 thrusters malfunctioned during a docking attempt at the International Space Station (ISS).
”Fear never truly crossed my mind. What occupied my thoughts was the trust I had in the people on the ground, the trust in my fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, who was right beside me, and the confidence he had in me — and how we would tackle this issue,” Williams shared. Of course, despite her technical expertise and solid teamwork, she admitted to missing the simple, sensory pleasures of life on Earth.
While she could connect with her family through video calls and enjoyed keeping up with news and gossip, there were elements that she couldn’t substitute from orbit — like feeling the gentle rain on her skin, the wind on her face, the sensation of sand under her feet, and, most importantly, the companionship of her dogs.
”When I look at our planet, I don’t just feel the heartbeat of all the family and friends I know, but also of the animals I care for. It’s remarkable to observe them active here on our planet. This is the world where they reside, where fish swim, where trees thrive. And not being a part of that… was profoundly painful,” she added.
Born to a Gujarati father, Deepak Pandya, from Jhulasan in Mehsana district, and a Slovenian mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, on September 19, 1965, in Euclid, Ohio, Williams took this opportunity to express her gratitude to India for embracing her as one of its own.
Reflecting on her inaugural space mission, she admitted to being initially doubtful when her father mentioned that people across the country were praying for her safe return.
”I said to him, ’I don’t believe you. This can’t be true.’ Then, when I returned home, I actually came across newspapers articles, and it dawned on me that it was indeed true. A friend of mine in the Himalayas at a school told me, ’Oh my gosh, your picture is in the school.’ ”I was like, wow. This is so heartfelt, so warming for me, to feel accepted as a daughter of India,” she recounted.
Williams launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery with STS-116 in December 2006 and returned aboard Atlantis with the STS-117 crew. In 2012, she took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a 127-day mission as part of Expedition 32/33 and subsequently served as the space station commander for Expedition 33.
The four-day KLF literary celebration features over 400 speakers, including Nobel Laureates Abdulrazak Gurnah and Abhijit Banerjee, authors Kiran Desai and Shashi Tharoor, historian Romila Thapar, essayist Pico Iyer, Jnanpith winner Pratibha Ray, sports icons Rohan Bopanna and Ben Johnson, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
KLF 2026, now in its ninth edition, will conclude on January 25.
