Screenshot from the video shared by Himanta Biswa Sarma
NEW DELHI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday shared a video showing an astronaut performing Bihu, a traditional folk dance from Assam, aboard the International Space Station (ISS).Sarma thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving “special focus” to the dance form and expressed his delight at “Bihu gaining global recognition.”“Bihu in the International Space Station. Kudos to astronaut Mike Fincke for this special gesture to Assam’s culture. It’s wonderful to see Bihu going global, especially after the special focus given by Adarniya Shri @narendramodi ji during #BihuBinandia,” he wrote on X, alongside the video.
“Bihu Binandia” was a large-scale cultural performance held in Guwahati in April 2023, featuring around 10,000 performers. The event was witnessed by PM Modi. According to The Assam Tribune, the video of Fincke performing Bihu is not recent and has resurfaced online. Its circulation comes as the state currently celebrates Rongali Bihu, which marks the Assamese New Year. In the clip, Fincke is seen dancing to traditional Bihu music while wearing a gamusa, a symbolic Assamese handwoven scarf, around his neck.
He is married to Renita Saikia, who is originally from Assam and also works with Nasa. The couple has three children. According to Nasa, Edward Michael “Mike” Fincke is a retired United States Air Force colonel who was selected as an astronaut in 1996. A Pennsylvania native, he travelled to the ISS for the fourth time on August 1, 2025, as pilot of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission. The mission concluded successfully with a splashdown on January 15.
