After 27 years of soaring above Earth, Sunita Williams has hung up her flight suit. In a recent podcast with Raj Shamani, the India‑origin space veteran—who logged 608 days on orbit, nine spacewalks and 62 hours of extravehicular activity—revealed the two ‘strangest’ sights that she came across — orbit crowded with communication satellites and glow of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) flickering above thunderclouds.
“There’s a lot of stuff up there, and it’s great for global connectivity, but you can’t help feeling the planet’s orbital neighbourhood is getting a bit… crowded.”
“We have some really great cameras now,” she explained, “and not me, but Don Pettit and Matt Dominic managed to snap blue jets and red sprites—energy shooting out of thunderclouds like lightning’s ghostly cousins.” These blue jets and red sprites are types of TLEs, fleeting flashes that occur miles above powerful thunderstorms and are hard to see from the ground. Nicole Ayers, another ISS crew member, captured similar images as the station flew over Mexico and the United States, and the resulting photos have been shared widely online. “Those pictures are out there—Don Pettit’s shots are incredible. I had the luxury of being up there with some amazing photographers who could catch that energy in a single frame.”
Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite.
Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. We have a great view above the clouds, so… pic.twitter.com/dCqIrn3vrA
— Nichole “Vapor” Ayers (@Astro_Ayers) July 3, 2025
In the podcast, she also affirms “absolutely” there’s life out there.
“The questions are apt fantastic and this is huge,” an Instagram user commented. Another said, “This episode and the trailer deserves to be on Netflix,” and third reacted, “There may be many moons, but there is only one Sunita Williams. What an icon.”
