NASA astronaut Suni Williams has 322 days - nearly a year of her life - living in the International Space Station. She’s done seven space walks, totaling more than fifty hours actually out in space. She’s also run the Falmouth Road Race and the Boston Marathon, virtually, while on the Space Station. And she clearly enjoys life in space.
"It's a neat place to live and work," says Williams, "and I think one of the hardest parts for me was coming home, because I didn't know if I was going to get to get the opportunity again."
Williams says the best part of life on the Space Station is definitely the view. Not only do you get a unique perspective on Earth, but views of the moon and stars are clearer, without the atmosphere in the way. On the downside, Williams says that she found it hard to pick out constellations because there were so many more stars visible.
Between maintenance work and science experiments, every day is different, which Williams enjoys. And, of course, zero gravity is just plain fun. She says it makes even routine Saturday-morning housecleaning enjoyable.
"You're cleaning, and you're trying to get to some little point that's way up there," she says, "and all you have to do is fly up there and turn yourself around and get a different perspective."
Of course, life in space isn't all fun and games. The ride up is a harrowing several minutes, there's lots of mundane maintenance work to do, and there's the constant awareness that even small mistakes could lead to disaster. Williams has been through false alarms, stressful electrical problems, and scary space walks.
Williams is no stranger to potentially life-threatening situations. She's a Navy helicopter test pilot who's been deployed on combat support missions. She's now putting those skills to work in NASA's Commercial Crew Program; she'll be test piloting space craft built by Boeing and SpaceX. And, although she admits NASA would likely be looking for younger candidates, Williams says she'd jump at the chance to go to Mars.
Williams says getting to Mars would be both a technological and humanitarian feat, and would open the door to answering many of our persistent questions about Mars - whether life ever has, does, or could exist there.
But Williams also foresees a day, not too far into the future, when space travel won't only be for scientists and astronauts.
"The Wright brothers only flew a little over a hundred years ago for the first time," says Williams, who dismisses the idea that we've been slow to develop new space flight technologies. "We're going to make smarter, safer space craft, just like we made smarter, safer airlines. And we'll be putting people into space. I absolutely believe that."