NEEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - Astronaut Suni Williams, who is currently aboard the International Space Station, surprised some elementary school students in Needham by calling them to talk about her experiences in space.
Williams called into the school that bears her name — Sunita L. Williams Elementary School — and detailed what it was like to launch into space recently on the Boeing Starliner ship.
“When I came up here and was able to look at our planet, our beautiful Earth, with all of its colors, and its alive and the clouds are moving. I think Earth has become sort of my favorite planet,” Williams said.
The Needham native also took questions from students.
“To get ready to go to space, we have to do a lot of physical fitness right here on the space station. I’ll show you. Butch is on my shoulders, I’m going to do some squats,” Williams said.
“As soon as the sun comes up, you can feel it on your space suit. And as the sun comes down, all the sudden it starts to get a little chilly and you have to start moving around inside your spacesuit to keep yourself pretty warm,” she continued.
Williams and astronaut Butch Wilmore were aboard the Boeing Starliner that took them to the International Space Station. The Starliner took off last week. It was the first time the ship flew with a crew on board.
“We’re only 250 miles away from Earth, and so the stars are a lot further away, so they look the same size as you would be looking, but they’re crystal clear because we don’t have an atmosphere,” Williams said.
She said she doesn’t know how long she’ll be aboard the ISS, but is keeping busy taking care of the Starliner.
“The other big goal for us is to make sure our space ship is put to sleep right now. It’s called quiescent. Then we can start it up, and everything will work, and we can fly it back home,” Williams said. “Our job is to test it all out.”
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