Prayers were held for Sunita Williams in her ancestral home in India.

As NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore began their return journey to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) with the help of SpaceX, prayers were held at Maninagar Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan in Ahmedabad for their safe landing.

Purohits performed prayers as NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore began their return journey to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) at Maninagar Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, for their safe landing.

The prayers, conducted under the chairmanship of Acharya Jitendriyapriyadas, were held both in India and abroad.

The Indian-origin astronaut Williams and her colleague Wilmore have spent nearly nine months in space.

Williams, an American astronaut of Indian-Slovenian descent, has deep familial ties to Gujarat. Her father, Deepak Pandya, hailed from Jhulasan village in Mehsana district, and she is the cousin of former minister and BJP leader Haren Pandya, who was assassinated in 2003. She has visited Gujarat and her ancestral village at least twice since 2007.

Williams and Wilmore's return marks a significant milestone in their space mission, which included critical research and maintenance aboard the ISS. Their journey back to Earth is being closely monitored by NASA and SpaceX as they prepare for a safe landing.