Anand Mahindra pens ‘Swagatam’ message for Sunita Williams as she returns home; throwback pic features Mukesh Ambani

Mahindra Group chairperson Anand Mahindra on Wednesday reacted to the return of Sunita Williams back to Earth, calling it an “enormous relief.”

Sharing an old picture of himself with the NASA astronaut and others on X, Mahindra hailed her courage, saying it was “good to have her back”.

“It was an enormous relief to see her and her colleagues’ successful splashdown back on earth a few hours ago. She is courage personified and it’s good to have her back amongst us. Swagatam, Sunita,” he wrote.

The Mahindra Group chairman re-shared a 2023 selfie with Sunita Williams, Mukesh Ambani and Vrinda Kapoor on X. The picture was taken during the India-US Hi-Tech Handshake event in Washington that year.

“When the SpaceX recue mission was launched, I recalled this chance encounter almost two years ago with @Astro_Suni in Washington [sic],” Mahindra said.

Sunita Williams returns to Earth

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth on Tuesday after staying in space for about nine months. The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the astronauts parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday morning (IST), hours after departing the International Space Station (ISS).

The splashdown took place off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle. Sunita Williams, 59 and Butch Wilmore, 62, were expected to stay on the ISS for about a week but were stranded there since June last year.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and travelled 121 million miles (195 million kilometres) by the time of splashdown.

NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Aleksandr Gorbunov also joined Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore and completed a highly anticipated return mission.

The ‘Washington moment’

On June 25, 2023, a selfie posted by Anand Mahindra with Mukesh Ambani and Sunita Williams broke the internet. In his post on X, Mahindra had detailed how he, Ambani and Vrinda Kapoor were trying to find an Uber for themselves after an event in Washington when they met Sunita Williams by chance.

“I suppose this was what they would call a ‘Washington moment.’ After the tech handshake meeting yesterday, Mukesh Ambani, Vrinda Kapoor & I were continuing a conversation with the Secretary of Commerce & missed the group shuttle bus to the next lunch engagement. We were trying to call an Uber when we ran into NASA astronaut Sunita Williams @Astro_Suni. Time for a selfie & we also asked if we could hitch a ride on her space shuttle instead of an Uber [sic],” he wrote at the time.