AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

NT Bureau
Chennai, July 21:

        NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has retraced her Indian roots during her live video chat with Chennai students arranged by the US Consulate General here yesterday.

        'The Bhagawad Gita has been the most influential book on me, and has been a reservoir of inspiration during my space voyage,' she declared to the school students who were awestruck by her frank and candid chat during the live conference.

        Terming her experience in the space as extraordinary, she said that the International Space Station (ISS) was an engineering marvel which was made possible by the scientific and technological contributions from different countries.

        When a student asked her opinion on Indian culture and heritage, Sunita expressed her reverence to the glorious history of India with its magnificent lifestyles and human excellence.

        The space woman has Chennai connection in that some of her cousins were still living in the city. When asked about the changes wrought upon her during her space journey on board the ISS, the Ohio-born Indian American said there was a little pain in her spine and apart from that there was no major change in her biological rhythm.

        When queried on the importance of team work in a space mission, the flight engineer said that good interactive skills and the ability to maintain a cohesive working relationship with the crew members were important to stay put in the shuttle.

        Sunita also elucidated some of the key experiments conducted by the crew aboard the ISS. 'We did various experiments on nutrition, capillary flow, radiation and composite hinges, among others,' she said.

        Previously, Sunita worked in Moscow with the Russian Space Agency and hence, she could understand the valuable contribution of the Russians to the International Space Station. Students from Indian metros including Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi queried with excitement on her space adventure and her life at the ISS.