Veteran NASA astronaut Suni Williams announced her retirement on Tuesday, bringing an unexpected close to her spacefaring career after what turned out to be an unusually long final mission. The retirement means Williams’ last trip to orbit was the extended test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, a mission that drew global attention after technical problems dramatically altered its timeline. NASA did not share details about when she decided to step down.
Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” Williams said in a statement released by the agency. “It’s been an incredible honor to serve in the Astronaut Office and to have the chance to fly in space three times.
Williams joined NASA in 1998 and went on to set several spaceflight records. Her first journey to the International Space Station came in 2006 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. She later returned to orbit in 2012, travelling in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Her most recent mission, however, became one of the most talked-about chapters of her career. Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore launched on Boeing’s Starliner capsule for its first crewed test flight, expecting to remain on the space station for roughly a week. Instead, technical issues with the spacecraft forced NASA to extend their stay to more than nine months, eventually sending Starliner back to Earth without a crew due to safety concerns.
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