NASA astronaut who was stuck at the space station for months retires within a year of returning
Sunni Williams was supposed to spend only a week in space.
Astronaut Suni Williams is interviewed at Johnson Space Center on Mar 31, 2025, in Houston. (Photo: AP/Ashley Landis)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: NASA’s Suni Williams - one of two astronauts stuck for months at the International Space Station - has retired.
The space agency announced the news Tuesday (Jan 20), saying her retirement took effect at the end of December.
Williams' crewmate on Boeing’s ill-fated capsule test flight, Butch Wilmore, left NASA last summer.
The pair launched to the space station in 2024, the first people to fly Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule. Their mission should have lasted just a week, but stretched to more than nine months because of Starliner trouble. In the end, they caught a ride home last March with SpaceX.
Boeing's next Starliner mission will carry cargo - not people - to the space station. NASA wants to make sure all of the capsule's thrusters and other issues are resolved before putting anyone on board. The trial run is expected to take place later this year.
Williams, 60, a former Navy captain, spent more than 27 years at NASA, logging 608 days in space over three station missions. She also set a record for the most spacewalking time by a woman: 62 hours during nine excursions.
NASA's new administrator Jared Isaacman called her “a trailblazer in human spaceflight”.
"Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement," he added in a statement.
