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Sunita reunited with family

HOUSTON:

— Photo: AP

All smiles: Sunita Williams after her arrival in Houston on Saturday.

HOUSTON: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams had an emotional reunion with her family as friends and well-wishers gave her a rousing reception here, a day after her return from a record-setting mission to the International Space Station.

“This gravity thing takes a bit getting used to,” said Ms. Williams, a little wobbly after months of weightlessness, after landing with her six crewmates on a NASA Gulfstream jet at Ellington Field in Texas.

Several hundred well-wishers, friends and co-workers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, gathered at Ellington Field to greet Ms. Williams and the six other Atlantis’ astronauts. “I’m not sure what I should say. There are so many to thank,” said Ms. Williams her voice breaking with emotion.

“I’m a girl, so I’m allowed to do this,” she said with a grin as tears welled up in her eyes as the crowd broke into frequent applause.

Ms. Williams, 41, who spent a record 195 days in space, the longest for any woman, quoted Tony Dungy, who became the first black coach to win the Super Bowl.

“He said something like, ‘It’s just the time and the place. There were many before me and many after me who can do this’.”

“It’s just the time and place,” said Ms. Williams, noting that she hoped her mission would pave the way for more women to travel to space, during a 20-minute ceremony in an open hangar.

She was joined by her husband Michael, her mother and sister, and Gorby, her dog. —PTI

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