Legendary NASA astronaut Suni Williams, who made headlines after being marooned at the International Space Station for nearly a year, has decided to hang up her space boots for good, the agency revealed Tuesday.
Williams’ official exit from NASA occurred at the end of December, bringing the curtain down on a remarkable career that spanned more than 27 years.
Williams, 60, was at the heart of one of NASA’s most turbulent space missions in recent memory. Alongside fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, she boarded Boeing’s Starliner in 2024 as part of its highly-anticipated crewed flight—only for things to go sideways when technical failures trapped them on orbit for over nine months. A flight intended to last just one week turned into an epic saga of survival and patience, as the pair anxiously awaited rescue while engineers on the ground scrambled with Starliner’s persistent problems.
Their ordeal finally ended in March 2025, when they were brought back to Earth in dramatic fashion—courtesy of a SpaceX Dragon capsule that swooped in to collect them. Williams was spotted being assisted out of the SpaceX craft on March 18, 2025, a triumphant return after months of uncertainty.
Her Starliner crewmate, Wilmore, quietly left NASA the previous summer, stepping away from the limelight after their historic, if bumpy, mission. As NASA presses pause on putting more people into Boeing’s hands, the Starliner’s next outing will involve only cargo, not astronauts—a clear sign the agency wants every single kink in the capsule’s thrusters and other systems unraveled before risking human lives again. That critical test is slated for later this year.
Williams didn’t just dominate in orbit. Post-mission, she showed off her Cleveland pride, serving as Dawg Pound Captain at a Browns-Bills matchup on December 21, 2025. Her face even graced the cover of the New York Post on March 19, 2025, cementing her status as an American space hero.
Across three missions to the space station, Williams clocked a jaw-dropping 608 days in space, cementing her legend. She wasn’t just good—she was a record-breaker, spending an unmatched 62 hours on spacewalks, a feat that no other woman astronaut has surpassed.
NASA’s boss, Jared Isaacman, had nothing but praise, hailing Williams as “a trailblazer in human spaceflight.” In his words: “Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement.” The stars will surely miss her.
