DigitEye India Fact Checkers
Sunita Williams credits Bhagwad Gita & Upanishads for her safe return. She stayed in space for 9 months @Astro_Suni @vijayshekhar @ShefVaidya @vivekagnihotri @ActorMadhavan @khushsundar @AdityaRajKaul @ashajadeja325 @homam108 @SubramanianKri @HinduACT @rishibagree pic.twitter.com/COEwbfJEER
— Ravi Karkara (@ravikarkara) March 21, 2025
In the video Sunita Williams can be heard saying to the media, “I really appreciate my Indian heritage and was glad I could bring part of it with me to space. Ganesh has always been in my house, everywhere I’ve lived I had Ganesh and so he had to come with me to space of course. And Indian food, you can never get enough of Indian food. I always make sure I have samosas in space with me.”
She further added, “Bhagavad Gita, this last time I brought a small copy interpretation of Upanishad with me. I also brought along the Bhagavad Gita, the Odyssey and I thought that was also quite appropriate to be in space and have those types of things to reflect and read.”
The context is, after a 286-day stay at the International Space Station, Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore returned to Earth on March 18, 2025. Sharing the video clip, an X user wrote, “I took a statue of Ganesh ji and Bhagavad Gita with me to space. These two things supported me, kept me away from mental stress:- Sunita Williams at a press conference in the USA…Sunita Williams credits Bhagwad Gita & Upanishads for her safe return. She stayed in space for 9 months.” It has been shared widely and accessible here and here.
In the video, Williams is seen expressing appreciation for her Indian heritage, mentioning that she carried a small Ganesh idol, Indian food, and books, including the Bhagavad Gita, an interpretation of the Upanishads, and The Odyssey. She describes these texts as sources of reflection during her time in space.
She has been on three journeys to space. The first one was from December 9, 2006 to June 22, 2007. The second one was from July 14, 2012 to November 18, 2012. The third and the most recent one started on June 5, 2024. Lasting 9 months, the space mission ended on March 18, 2025. However, the caption suggests that Williams credited the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads for her return from space this time.
FACT-CHECK
Digiteye India team took it up for fact-checking. Using keyword search on YouTube, we found an extended version of the video uploaded on NDTV YouTube channel on 2 April 2013 with the title: ‘I had samosas in space with me, says astronaut Sunita Williams.’ The description of the video confirms that Sunita Williams said these words while speaking at the National Science Center in Delhi during her visit to India. Watch the claimed part at the timestamp of 1:09 minutes:
About carrying personal things to space, she told media later that she carried Bhagavad Geeta, Upanishads and the Odyssey. She said that these spiritual things offer, “a little bit of reflection of yourself, your life and the world around you. Makes you see things a different way.”
The same has been confirmed by news reports. As per the news report, Sunita Williams told students at the National Science Centre in Delhi that she took a Ganesha idol and samosas to space. And, this time she has not confirmed so far whether she carried the Bhagavad Gita on her latest mission aboard NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test.
The claim that Sunita Williams credited the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads for her safe return after spending nine months in space, is not yet told by her, nor reported. Hence, it is misleading.
Claim: A viral video claims that astronaut Sunita Williams credited the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads for her safe return after spending nine months in space.
Conclusion: The claim is misleading. The viral video is from 2013 and does not confirm the same from her latest space mission.
Rating: Misleading — 
