At a Glance
- Suni Williams retired from NASA on December 27 after 27 years with the agency
- She logged 608 days in space, the second-highest total in NASA history
- Her last mission stretched from one week to 286 days when Boeing’s Starliner ran into trouble
- Why it matters: Williams’ record-breaking career shapes future commercial crew programs and long-duration spaceflight protocols
NASA astronaut Suni Williams, whose most recent mission turned a planned week-long stay into an unexpected nine-month residency aboard the International Space Station, has retired after 27 years with the agency, NASA announced Tuesday.
The former Navy pilot, who joined NASA in 1988, left the agency effective December 27. Over three decades she flew three space-station missions, logged more spacewalk time than any other woman, and became the face of NASA’s response when Boeing’s Starliner capsule encountered problems on its first crewed flight.
From One Week to Nine Months
Williams and crewmate Butch Wilmore launched aboard Starliner on June 5, 2024. The capsule’s debut flight with astronauts was supposed to last about a week, but thruster malfunctions during docking raised safety concerns. NASA opted to keep the crew on station and return Starliner empty in September 2024, leaving the pair in orbit while engineers analyzed the data.
A SpaceX Dragon capsule eventually brought them home on March 18, 2025, capping a 286-day unplanned extension. The mission also ferried home two other astronauts finishing a standard six-month rotation.
Career Records
Williams’ cumulative totals place her among NASA’s most seasoned flyers:
| Metric | Value | NASA Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Total days in space | 608 | 2nd all-time |
| Spacewalk time | 62 hr 6 min | most by a woman, 4th overall |
She first reached orbit aboard shuttle Discovery in 2006 and completed two earlier long-duration station stays before the 2024 flight.
Agency Praise
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman highlighted her influence on both exploration and commercial crew efforts:
> “Suni Williams has been a trailblazer in human spaceflight, shaping the future of exploration through her leadership aboard the space station and paving the way for commercial missions to low Earth orbit.”
Williams called her NASA tenure an “incredible honor” and told colleagues, “Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be.” Before offering advice to future astronauts, she gave a shout-out to her hometown of Needham, Massachusetts.
Adapting in Orbit
Both astronauts said the prolonged mission felt like a natural extension of their training. In a March briefing after splashdown off Florida’s coast, Wilmore noted, “The plan went way off for what we had planned, but because we’re in human spaceflight, we prepare for any number of contingencies. This is a curvy road. You never know where it’s going to go.”
Williams told Daniel J. Whitman in June that her body adjusted more easily because of her prior flights: “Though it was longer than any flight either one of us have flown before, I think my body remembered.”
Key Takeaways
- Williams retires holding NASA’s second-longest space-duration record at 608 days
- Her final mission demonstrated NASA’s ability to extend crew stays when vehicles malfunction
- The extended stay provided additional data on long-duration human physiology, aiding future Moon and Mars plans
- NASA continues to rely on both SpaceX and, eventually, Boeing capsules for astronaut transport
