‘An incredible honour’: NASA astronaut Sunita Williams retires after 27-year space career

Williams joined NASA in 1998 and first flew to the International Space Station in 2006 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. She returned in 2012, travelling on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Her most recent mission, however, became the most talked-about chapter of her career. Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore were selected to pilot Boeing’s Starliner capsule on its first crewed test flight, a mission originally expected to last about a week.

Instead, the two astronauts remained aboard the space station for more than nine months after technical problems emerged during Starliner’s journey. Due to safety concerns, NASA later decided to bring the spacecraft back to Earth without a crew. Despite the extended stay and global attention surrounding the mission, both Williams and Wilmore repeatedly said they were well-prepared and enjoyed their time in orbit.

Looking back on her career, Williams credited the people around her for making it possible. “I had an amazing 27-year career at NASA, mainly because of the love and support of my colleagues,” she said. “The International Space Station, the people behind it, and the science we’ve done there are truly inspiring. I hope the work we’ve done has made future missions to the Moon and Mars a little easier.”

Over the years, Williams built a remarkable record in spaceflight. She spent a total of 608 days in orbit, the second-highest total among NASA astronauts. She also performed nine spacewalks, totalling 62 hours of spacewalking, making her a world record holder in the experience of spacewalking. Besides these accolades, she gained headlines for other distinctive achievements, these being the execution of a marathon in space, followed by the accomplishment of being the first to perform a triathlon in orbit.

The NASA administration praised her legacy in the wake of the announcement. Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, described Williams as a trailblazer whose dedication and leadership will inspire future explorers. She highlighted Williams’s contributions to the space station and her role in testing new spacecraft as particularly important to the future of human spaceflight.

Williams’s retirement comes months after she and Wilmore returned to Earth and follows a familiar path taken by other astronauts who concluded their careers after major test missions. Like Williams, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley retired after piloting SpaceX’s first crewed test flight in 2020. Such milestone missions often mark a natural closing point for long-serving astronauts.