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Sunita Williams reveals the ‘strangest thing’ she has seen in space: ‘I had no idea those things existed’

Sunita Williams made a candid appearance on entrepreneur Raj Shamani’s podcast. During the conversation, she spoke about her life beyond Earth, reflected on her Indian roots and more.

3 min readNew DelhiJan 23, 2026 05:00 PM IST

Later in the conversation, when asked if she believed there was life beyond Earth, Sunita Williams did not pause before answering, “Absolutely.”

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who recently retired after a long career in space exploration, is currently in India and made a candid appearance on entrepreneur Raj Shamani’s podcast. During the conversation, she spoke about her life beyond Earth, reflected on her Indian roots, and shared rare insights from her years spent in orbit.

On the podcast, Williams offered a glimpse into what everyday life in space looks like, the challenges, the surprises, and the moments of quiet wonder that come with being an astronaut. When Shamani asked her about the strangest thing she had seen in space, Williams replied, “Two different things that were different or have been different. There’s a lot of communication satellites up there now. And which is great because there’s a lot of communication now on Earth because we have these constellations of satellites. But there is. It was an impression, like, there is a lot of stuff in orbits around the planet.”

She went on to add, “The other thing, which was really cool this time, and we were able. It’s hard to see with the naked eye, but we have some really great cameras and we were able to take pictures. Not me in particular, but Don Pettit and Matt Dominic of blue jets and red sprites coming out of a thundercloud. Like energy coming up. It’s out there because Nicole Ayers took some after we left, too. And I think those are posted. Just amazing that we were able to take pictures of energy coming out of a thundercloud and out of lightning.”

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Calling the experience unforgettable, Williams said, “That was pretty amazing. I had no idea those things existed. People knew they were existing, but it was hard to actually document it. And now the cameras that we have, we can document that. So all of that is pretty amazing.”

“So those pictures are out there also from Don Pettit, if anybody gets a moment to take a look on the Internet. Incredible pictures. So I had the luxury of being up there with some amazing photographers that were able to do that,” she added.

Later in the conversation, Shamani asked her, “Do you believe there’s some life out there?” Williams answered without hesitation: “Absolutely. With those billions of stars out there, we’re just a little planet around one star. So, yeah, there’s life out there.”

Williams recently retired after spending 27 years with NASA, contributing to several landmark missions. Over the course of her career, she logged a record 608 days in space, navigating the physical and emotional demands of life in orbit with resilience and resolve.