Sunita Williams

Student: After becoming an astronaut, do you view the world from a different angle? Sunita Williams: So was it my dream to become an astronaut first and foremost? No. You know, when I was growing up, and I'm so happy we didn't say what year I was born in my introduction, but when I was growing up, I remember actually seeing, the first men walk on the moon.

And I thought to myself, "Now, that would be cool. That's what I want to do." and it didn't become a reality to become an astronaut, like I mentioned earlier, till later when I was a test pilot, and part of that reality came true because one of the gentlemen that was talking, his name was John Young, and he had actually been to the moon twice.

Once landed on it, and second time flew around it. But he mentioned about practicing in some type of vertical landing craft to be able to learn how to land on the moon, and I said, "Oh my gosh, I'm a helicopter pilot. I already have those skills."

So this is really the first time it dawned on me that I could potentially do this same type of thing. And I tell you that because, I didn't think about it for a long time until later in life, and so I just trekked through my life trying to find the things that I like to do, and that, like, I mentioned that earlier, and I would reemphasize that again.

If you're interested in being an astronaut, astronauts, we need astronauts from all different fields because there's so much we do up there. We're, you know, the plumbers, the electricians, the IT guys. We're the, you know, the maintainers.

We're the toilet fixers. We're the space walkers. We're the scientists. And so we need people who have all of those skills to do that.

So, if you're thinking about that, you I you're right on the right track. And of course, yes, I absolutely view life on this earth, I view, being able to do whatever you want a lot differently. I was not straight A student in college.

I had a couple ups and downs in college. I had a couple failures as well as a lot of successes, and failure is good, but what being an astronaut has reminded me is that you can do anything you want to do if you put your mind to it, and determine, and have determination and find a path. So yes, for sure, I've have different perspective about a lot of things.

What was your motivation as a child or a student that inspired you to move on a path not often undertaken by women? I think, first of all, I didn't think about it that way. I just thought of it as, something fun to do.

And my path was not always as straight as it may seem. My biography maybe makes things look a little bit like they were straight from one thing to the next, but there were a lot of questions along the way. So you guys are getting ready to think about what you're going to do in the future, huh?

Don't feel locked into something is my one piece of advice. I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was growing up. I thought for sure I was gonna be a veterinarian.

My father is a doctor. Biology is a little bit in our family, but I also liked math and physics quite a bit. I didn't know what I wanted to do really.

I just loved animals, so I wanted to be a veterinarian. I didn't get into my first choices of college, so I had to make a second choice about what I wanted to do, and the Naval Academy was recommended because, my family was pretty athletic and we like camping is what my brother told me. "I think you'll like this school 'cause you like camping."

I said, "Okay, sure." and so that was not my first choice. When I was at the Naval Academy, I thought I wanted to be a diver 'cause I was a swimmer.