NASA astronaut liked seeing India from space. What Mike Massimino did next will move you

Only a few people on Earth have seen the planet from a place most of us can only dream about. And for former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, that once-in-a-lifetime view led to something unforgettable. On a recent episode of Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast, Massimino shared how the beauty of India seen from space left such a deep impression on him that he made a silent promise to visit one day—and he finally did.

In a snippet from their conversation, which Ranveer posted on Instagram, the former astronaut described how stunning India looked when he observed it from the International Space Station. “India is very beautiful,” he said without hesitation, when asked if certain parts of Earth looked more breathtaking than others. He explained how city lights, like those from Mumbai and Delhi, looked “spectacular” at night, glowing beneath a blanket of stars. For Massimino, that view wasn't just visually striking—it was emotional.

The beauty he saw from orbit lingered in his memory long after he returned to Earth. Years later, that vision would bring him to India for the first time, fulfilling a dream sparked thousands of kilometres above ground. “He says he always wanted to visit after seeing it from above,” Ranveer wrote, “and finally made that dream come true. The beauty he saw from space matched what he experienced on the ground.”

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Who is Mike Massimino?

He’s not just any astronaut. Born in New York, Massimino holds degrees from Columbia University and MIT. Selected by NASA in 1996, he logged over 571 hours in space—including more than 30 hours of spacewalks—and made history as the first astronaut to tweet from space. After retiring in 2014, he began teaching engineering at Columbia.