NASA astronaut Sunita Williams was inspired by Tom Cruise’s Top Gun movie to become a pilot

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who has currently extended her stay in space due to the faulty Boeing Starliner spacecraft, got inspired to become a pilot after watching Tom Cruise’s film Top Gun. During a visit to India back in January 2018, Williams interacted with school students, where she talked about the ups and downs of her career and what happens to your body when you stay up in space for too long.

She said, “As a pilot, I wanted to fly jets because ‘Top Gun’ had just come out, and it seemed cool, but I became a helicopter pilot instead. My path wasn’t straight, and it wasn’t until my mid-twenties, after attending test pilot school and meeting astronauts, that I realized I had some of the same qualifications they did. That’s when I thought, ‘Maybe this is a path I can take.’”

She also revealed that she wanted to become a veterinarian growing up because she loved animals.

When asked about how being in space affects human body, Williams revealed that though there are several mitigation methods that NASA has in place but there are some things like radiation is still something that the astronauts cannot completely avoid.

According to her, physiological changes in space can be fascinating to observe. She noted, “calluses on your feet disappear because you don’t walk, and I noticed my fingernails and hair grew faster. Without gravity, some wrinkles on your face might temporarily smooth out due to fluid shifting upwards. Your spine also expands because there’s no pressure on the cartilage between your vertebrae, making you slightly taller in space. However, these changes reverse once you return to Earth, and gravity takes over again. You shrink back to your normal height, your back might ache a bit.”

However, she revealed that one of the significant concerns in space is bone density and muscle mass loss because in microgravity, bones start to lose density quickly. She explained, “To counteract this, we exercise rigorously with specialised equipment. We run on treadmills with harnesses to simulate gravity and lift weights to maintain muscle mass, particularly in the hips and legs. We also use exercise bikes for cardiovascular fitness.”

She added, "After landing, it takes about 24 to 48 hours for the fluid balance to normalise, allowing us to resume physical activities.