Astronaut Sunita Williams is now best known to the general public as one of the two crew members of the Starliner spacecraft who, due to its malfunction, were stuck on the ISS for almost a year. In fact, she has flown into space three times, but is now ending her career as a space traveler.
Circumstances of the astronaut’s resignation
Sunita Williams is retiring. The NASA astronaut has been in the news over the past couple of years mainly because she and Barry Wilmore were stranded on the International Space Station after significant technical problems were discovered on their Starliner spacecraft.
The space agency announced the news on Tuesday, saying her resignation took effect at the end of December. Williams’ partner on the failed Boeing capsule test flight, Barry Wilmore, left NASA last summer.
Williams and Wilmore flew to the space station in 2024, becoming the first people to travel on Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule. Their mission was supposed to last only a week, but it stretched out to more than nine months due to problems with Starliner. They finally returned home in March last year on a SpaceX spacecraft.
In the next few missions, Boeing’s Starliner will transport cargo to the ISS, not people. NASA wants to make sure that all of the capsule’s engine problems and other technical issues are resolved before putting anyone on board. A test launch is planned for later this year.
Sunita Williams’ achievements in space
In fact, Williams’ resignation cannot be called a failure. After all, she is already 60 years old, and even before her career at NASA, she managed to rise to the rank of captain in the US Navy as a combat helicopter pilot. She participated in several military missions.
This was followed by 27 years at NASA and three space flights totaling 608 days. At one point, Williams held the record for the longest time spent in space by a woman. She also made 10 spacewalks totaling 60 hours and 19 minutes.
Thus, Williams’ mission on Starliner was originally intended to be the culmination of her career. New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called her “a trailblazer in human spaceflight.” “Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement,” he added in a statement.
In fact, it is quite possible that Sunita Williams will fly into space again. Only not as a NASA astronaut, but as an employee of some private space company. At least, that’s what happened to her colleague Peggy Whitson.
According to phys.org
