Sunita Williams, Indian-origin NASA astronaut who was stuck at space station for months, retires

NASA's Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams retired from the US space agency on December 27, 2025, concluding 27 years of service during which she set numerous records in human spaceflight.

“Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” said Williams. “It’s been an incredible honor to have served in the Astronaut Office and have had the opportunity to fly in space three times. I hope the foundation we set has made these bold steps a little easier. I am super excited for NASA and its partner agencies as we take these next steps, and I can’t wait to watch the agency make history.”

Williams’ final space mission included Boeing’s ill-fated capsule test flight, which left her stranded at the International Space Station for several months. Her retirement follows that of her Boeing crewmate, Butch Wilmore, who left NASA last summer.


The pair was 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.

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.

Sunita Williams' space history

Williams launched for the first time aboard space shuttle Discovery with STS-116 in December 2006 and returned aboard space shuttle Atlantis with the STS-117 crew. She served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 14/15 and completed a then-record-breaking four spacewalks during the mission.

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 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, the statement said.

Most recently, Williams and Wilmore launched aboard the Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 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.

Beyond her spaceflight experience, 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. After her first flight, she served as deputy chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.

She later was the Director of Operations in Star City, Russia, following her second mission to the space station. Most recently, she helped establish a helicopter training platform to prepare astronauts for future Moon landings, as per the statement.

The Needham, Massachusetts, native holds a bachelor's degree in physical science from the United States Naval Academy and a master's degree in engineering management from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. 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.