After 27 Years of 9 Spacewalks, 3 Missions And 608 Days In Space; Sunita Williams Retires

21st January 2026 at 3:38 PM

1 minute read

Washington : Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, has retired after an overwhelming 27 years of her service. Her retirement came into effect on December 27, 2025, just after Christmas, according to a Tuesday announcement from NASA.

NASA administrator Jared Issacman praised her legacy as a pioneer of human spaceflight who helped build the future of exploration by her amazing leadership. He said that her contributions to science and technology have nourished the base for Artemis missions to the Moon and future journeys to Mars, in addition to becoming a role model for future generations to come.

“Sunita Williams has been a trailblazer in human spaceflight and has paved the way for commercial missions to low Earth orbit,” the NASA Administrator added. Further he thanked for her commendable contributions to the nation and congratulated on her well deserved retirement.

In 1998 Indian-origin astronaut Williams was chosen by NASA and got registered for 608 days in space over her 3 flights. Along with NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, who logged 286 days during NASA’s Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew-9 missions Sunita Williams ranks sixth on the list of longest single spaceflight by an American. Being fourth on NASA’s all-time list, which is most of any female astronaut till date, she has accomplished 9 spacewalks, with a total of 62 hours and 6 minutes. Not just that she is also the first person to run a marathon in space.

Her maiden flight to space was on December 9, 2006, in space shuttle Discovery with the crew of STS-116. Then on July 14, 2012, almost after six years came the second mission, when Williams launched in Kazakhstan from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a 127-day mission as a member of Expedition 32/33. Finally her third mission saw Williams and Wilmore launch aboard the Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission which turned out to be the longest one. Both the astronauts returned to Earth in March 2025.