Sunita Williams Retires: NASA astronaut Sunita Williams retired on December 27, 2025, after 27 years of service. With a remarkable career spanning three missions to the International Space Station, Williams set several records for human spaceflight, including spending 608 days in space, the second most by a NASA astronaut.
Sunita Williams first flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-116 mission in December 2006 and returned on Space Shuttle Atlantis with STS-117 mission. She served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 14/15 and completed four spacewalks during the mission, a record at the time.
Sunita Williams Retires
Williams has spent 608 days in space, placing her second on the list of total time spent in space by NASA astronauts. She is sixth on the list of longest single spaceflights by an American, tied with NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, with both having spent 286 days in space during NASA’s Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew-9 missions. Williams also completed nine spacewalks, totalling 62 hours and 6 minutes.
This is a record for the longest spacewalks performed by a woman and ranks fourth on the all-time list of total spacewalk duration. She was also the first person to run a marathon in space.
Sunita William’s Career at NASA
In 2012, Williams launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a 127-day mission as a member of Expedition 32/33. She also served as the space station commander for Expedition 33. The statement said that during mission, Williams conducted three spacewalks to repair a leak in a station radiator and replace a component that supplied power to the station’s systems from its solar panels.
NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. They both joined Expedition 71/72, and Williams once again assumed command of the space station for Expedition 72. She completed two spacewalks during this mission and returned to Earth in March 2025 aboard the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
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