By Naman Yadav

New Delhi [India], December 6 (ANI): Astronaut and former NASA veteran Mike Massimino has expressed optimism about India's space program, which has major future plans aiming for human landings on the Moon by 2040 and crewed Mars missions.

'I think India is capable of doing great things which they have done in many areas and I am very excited that they are building their space program the way they have and been successful,' Massimino said in an interview with ANI from the US.

'They just recently sent an astronaut to the space station and And I think the moon landing was very exciting. I was lucky enough to visit India for the first time last February. And I got to see the excitement around that in different areas. Mainly I was in New Delhi. But it was a wonderful trip. Got to meet the prime minister and people involved with the space program there. And I got to visit a lot of schools. I was there for a few days. So I think that there's a lot of smart people,' the Nasa astronaut said.

India successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 mission on the Moon's south pole on August 23, 2023, making it the first country to achieve this feat. The mission's goal was to develop and demonstrate new technologies for inter-planetary missions.

In June this year Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, made history as the first Indian to visit the International Space Station in over 40 years as part of the private Axiom-4 mission. He served as the pilot for the mission that conducted experiments in space, including those on microgravity and paved the way for India's future space endeavours like, Gaganyaan.

Meanwhile, since retiring from NASA, Massimino, 63, is now a science communicator and says he is impressed with India's education.

'Education is stressed in India, which I think is really important, particularly technical science, engineering, math, those things that they were, the students I met were young, but they were very interested in their teachers, very dedicated. So I'm very excited about what India is going to be able to accomplish. And I hope we get to do it together, you know, with the United States and India working together,' he said.

'That would be great over the next few years,' said Massimino, who flew two Space Shuttle missions.

Massimino recounted the time when Indian-origin astronoaut Sunita Williams had to spend over nine months in space from June 2024 to March 2025 due to malfunctions with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, forcing them to return on a SpaceX capsule after an originally planned week-long test mission became a prolonged stay at the International Space Station (ISS).

'We had two of our other astronauts, Frank Rubio and Mark Vande Hei, went up to the space station on a Soyuz spacecraft. And there was an issue with the Soyuz. 'They went from going to six months to a year. And that happened before Sunny was in space,' Massimino said on being asked about the challenges that astronauts face when their missions get extended due to malfunctioning equipment.

With reference to Sunita Williams whom he referred to by her nickname 'Suni', Massimino said, 'Sonny is a Indian American, right? So their parents are from india. When I was in India I met the prime minister (PM Narendra Modi). He gave me a letter to send to Sonny in space because I was talking to her through email. And so I made a copy of the letter and I sent it up to her and she was thrilled. And then I sent her the original letter signed by the prime minister after she got back. So she's very much proud of her Indian heritage and her parents as well and her whole family.' (ANI)