- World
- Jan 21
Sunita Williams retires from NASA after 27 years
• After 27 years of service, astronaut Sunita Williams retired from NASA.
• Williams, 60, completed three missions aboard the International Space Station, setting numerous human spaceflight records throughout her career.
Profile of Sunita Williams
• Born on September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio to Dr. Deepak and Bonnie Pandya.
• Education: Bachelor of Science in Physical Science, US Naval Academy, 1987.
• Master of Science in Engineering Management, Florida Institute of Technology, 1995.
• Her father Deepak Pandya, originally from Jhulasan in Gujarat, migrated to the United States in 1957.
• She is married to Michael J. Williams, a federal marshal in Texas.
• Williams received her commission as an Ensign in the United States Navy from the United States Naval Academy in May 1987. After a six-month temporary assignment at the Naval Coastal System Command, she received her designation as a Basic Diving Officer and then reported to Naval Aviation Training Command. She was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989.
• She was selected as an astronaut by NASA in June 1998.
• Williams held numerous roles throughout her NASA career.
• In 2002, she served as a NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environments Mission Operations) crew member, spending nine days living and working in an underwater habitat.
• Williams was one among the crew of STS-116 on December 9, 2006, docking with the International Space Station on December 11, 2006.
• As a member of the Expedition 14 crew, Williams served as Flight Engineer. While onboard, she established a then-world record for females with four spacewalks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes.
• Williams concluded her tour of duty as a member of the Expedition 15 crew returning to Earth with the STS-117 crew to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California on June 22, 2007.
• In July 2012, Williams launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a 127-day mission to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 32/33. She also served as space station commander for Expedition 33. Williams performed three spacewalks during the mission to repair a leak on a station radiator and replace a component that gets power from the station’s solar arrays to its systems.
• In June 2024, Williams and Butch Wilmore launched aboard the Starliner spacecraft as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. She and Wilmore went on to join Expedition 71/72, and Williams again took command of the space station for Expedition 72. She completed two spacewalks on the mission and returned to Earth in March 2025, as part of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
• Williams logged 608 days in space — second on the list of cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut after Peggy Whitson.
• She ranks sixth on the list of longest single spaceflight by an American, tied with NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, both logging 286 days during NASA’s Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew-9 missions.
• Williams also completed nine spacewalks, totaling 62 hours and 6 minutes, ranking as the most spacewalk time by a woman and fourth-most on the all-time cumulative spacewalk duration list.
• She also was the first person to run a marathon in space.
• A retired US Navy captain, Williams is an accomplished helicopter and fixed-wing pilot, having logged more than 4,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft.