Krishnakant Vakharia, president of Vishwa Gujarati Samaj said, “This award has been given to Sunita for her outstanding achievements as an astronaut. She has made the whole world proud. She has very strong Indian roots and she is indeed one of us.” As NASA regulations do not permit Sunita to accept cash prize, Vakharia said, “Since Sunita cannot accept the cash prize, we have decided to donate it for a charitable cause that her father Deepak Pandya wishes to.”

Unlike Thursday’s function at Gandhi Ashram, where Sunita’s interaction with children did not last for more than 10 minutes, she was more generous on Friday. She began with playing a video of her space sojourn and talking about the various facets of life in space. “I exercised a lot in space and it helped me when I returned to earth. I want to point out the importance of being fit to the children here,” she said. She also reiterated her point that if one sees the earth from space, it will be without any boundary line. Responding to a question from a 10-year-old boy she said, “I do believe advancements in space sciences can make this earth a better place to live in. The advances in space sciences are a result of the effort of so many people from different parts of the world.”

Asked as to how the Mars mission can benefit humankind, she said, “Its success will be very important. We need to find out whether human beings can live on a planet other than the earth.”