Before Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, David Bowie sang about “Major Tom,” an astronaut who drifted into the unknown. Contrastingly, my family sings a joyful tune—our astronaut, Chris Williams, has returned to Earth. Chris landed Sunday morning in Kazakhstan after an astonishing journey of 102 million miles, spanning eight months on the International Space Station (ISS). A recovery team took my nephew to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Chris always had a fascination with space. As a child, he wore a onesie adorned with astronauts. Now, he proudly wears the U.S. flag on a real spacesuit. On his mission, Chris participated in two spacewalks, tethered to the ISS to repair its robotic arms. Watching him live on the NASA channel left me in awe.
Inside the ISS, Chris and his colleagues conducted various experiments. They studied how eyes change in zero gravity and evaluated how space affects the human brain’s orientation. They also examined bone density and DNA changes to understand the impact of long-term space travel on the human body.
In January, after a fellow American was evacuated due to illness, Chris spent a month as the sole American aboard the ISS. Another challenge arose in June when an air leak forced Chris and four astronauts to evacuate to the “Dragon” spacecraft. His family anxiously waited for two hours until the issue was resolved.
“Duuuuude! You are officially [the greatest] for orbital fireworks imagery.”
Chris gained attention for his astral photography. During the Lunar New Year, he captured spectacular photos of fireworks from the ISS’s glass cupola. Astronauts, including Zena Cardman and Anne McClain, praised his work. In April, Chris shared images of a fiery object over West Africa. Believed to be satellite debris, it produced a vivid display. Chris described it as “quite a light show.”
During his mission, Chris engaged with young people from New York and Florida. They inquired about the differences between Earth-based and space-based research. Chris, a Stanford physics major with a Ph.D. from MIT, explained the challenges of zero gravity. Velcro strips help keep items in place. When asked about space food, he mentioned it was satisfactory, thanks to food science experts in Houston. He amused students by releasing a water bubble, playfully catching it like Pac-Man.
These Q&A sessions aimed to inspire American youth in science and math. Chris encouraged them to help lead missions back to the moon and beyond, even to Mars. From the ISS, he watched as the Artemis II mission orbited the moon, communicating with friends and contributing a segment for “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream. The segment ended with Chris floating out of view, a first for a TV guest.
Personally, Chris remained connected with family through regular calls. He joined a streaming session with relatives across the globe, from the U.S. to Europe and Panama. On Father’s Day, his live message reached Trinity Episcopal Church, congratulating his father. Congregants will remember talking to an astronaut as he orbited Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, completing over 3,856 orbits.
In church, I was moved to tears when Chris’s father read a prayer for him. It praised Chris’s achievements and asked for his safe return. Rev. Shayna Watson led the congregation in the closing refrain: “Until We See You Again.” That moment is today.
Juan Williams is a senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a civil rights historian. He authored “New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement.”