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Sunita Williams bids adieu after three decades of space voyaging
Williams, who turned 60 last September, has spent over 600 days in space.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Tue, 20, Jan 2026
- 00:27 EST
- 10
Sunita Williams / Wikimedia Commons
Veteran astronaut Sunita Williams has drawn the curtain on an illustrious 27 year career at NASA. NASA reported her retirement on Jan. 20 and hailed her for her illustrious career, featuring three missions to the International Space Station and several other notable achievements.
Williams has clocked-in 608 days in space, the second on the list of cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut. She also holds the record of having completed a 286-day spaceflight, ranking sixth among Americans. She holds the record for the most spacewalk time by a woman, 62 hours 6 minutes, ranking fourth all-time overall.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, said in a statement, "Suni Williams has been a trailblazer in human spaceflight, shaping the future of exploration through her leadership aboard the space station and paving the way for commercial missions to low Earth orbit.”
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After having started her space journey in 2006, board space shuttle Discovery, Williams went to space again in 2012 and then in 2024. Her 2024 trip was a scare for all after she, along with her team, was trapped in the ISS for nearly nine months due to technical issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
“Over the course of Suni’s impressive career trajectory, she has been a pioneering leader,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Wyche added, “From her indelible contributions and achievements to the space station, to her groundbreaking test flight role during the Boeing Starliner mission, her exceptional dedication to the mission will inspire the future generations of explorers.”
Sunita Williams, originally from Needham, Massachusetts, earned a bachelor’s degree in physical science from the United States Naval Academy and a master’s degree in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. A retired U.S. Navy captain, she is a highly experienced pilot who accumulated over 4,000 flight hours across 40 different types of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
“Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” said Williams.
She added, “It’s been an incredible honor to have served in the Astronaut Office and have had the opportunity to fly in space three times. I had an amazing 27-year career at NASA, and that is mainly because of all the wonderful love and support I’ve received from my colleagues. The International Space Station, the people, the engineering, and the science are truly awe-inspiring and have made the next steps of exploration to the Moon and Mars possible. I hope the foundation we set has made these bold steps a little easier. I am super excited for NASA and its partner agencies as we take these next steps, and I can’t wait to watch the agency make history.”
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