NASA astronaut Suni Williams at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Naval Ordnance Test Unit basin in Florida in March 2018. Williams, a former Navy captain, is retiring after a 27-year career, NASA said Jan. 20, 2026. (Kim Shiflett/NASA)
Longtime NASA astronaut and former Navy helicopter pilot Suni Williams has hung up her spacesuit for the last time.
Calling her “a trailblazer in human spaceflight,” an agency statement on Tuesday announced Williams’ retirement, which began late last month.
During her 27-year career, Williams logged 608 days in space, earning her second place on the list of cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut.
She ranks sixth on the list of longest single spaceflights by an American, tied with Butch Wilmore, both of whom logged 286 days during NASA’s Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew-9 missions, according to NASA.
International Space Station Commander Suni Williams, a retired U.S. Navy captain, right, and Space Force Col. Nick Hague wave to Stuttgart Elementary School students in Germany during a downlink to the school in December 2024. (Bardia Khajenoori/USAG Stuttgart)
Suni Williams, a NASA astronaut and retired Navy captain, signs an autograph for Seaman Angel Morales while visiting the crew of the USS Constitution in February 2025. (Raymond Minami/U.S. Navy)
Astronaut Suni Williams flashes at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2024. (Frank Micheaux/NASA)
Williams and Wilmore were part of the first crewed Starliner mission to the International Space Station in 2024. Their original plan to spend 10 days in space turned into more than nine months in orbit due to a Starliner thruster system problem. They hitched a ride home in March with SpaceX.
While they were stranded, Williams completed several spacewalks, bringing her total to nine. Her cumulative spacewalk time of 62 hours and 6 minutes is top among female astronauts and fourth on the all-time list, according to NASA.
“Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” Williams said in the statement.
“The International Space Station, the people, the engineering and the science are truly awe-inspiring and have made the next steps of exploration to the moon and Mars possible,” she added.
Williams was also the first person to complete a triathlon and marathon in space. For her 2012 triathlon, she used a stationary bike, treadmill and strength-training machine to simulate the race experience, according to Space.com.
A retired Navy captain, Williams logged more than 4,000 flight hours as a helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft pilot.
She was selected to be an astronaut in 1998. During a 2018 interview with the Scottish Space School in Glasgow, Williams recalled being on a Navy ship when NASA called.
“It was jaw-dropping and all the folks around me were like, ‘No! You’re joking! I can’t believe it!’” she said during the interview. “I had to pinch myself.”
