FALMOUTH – NASA has announced that astronaut Suni Williams, a Massachusetts native with Cape Cod ties, is retiring.
Williams, who is from Needham, has a sister who has worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Sunita has family in Falmouth, and she spoke about her experience at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in 2016.
Williams put in 27 years of service, including three missions aboard the International Space Station. NASA says Williams logged 608 days in space, which is second on the list of cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut.
She also was the first person to run a marathon in space, in 2007, and then the first triathlon in 2012. Multiple times, she has participated virtually from space in the Falmouth Road Race.
“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,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
In 2025, Williams completed her final ISS stay which ran unexpectedly long. Williams went up to test Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, but there was trouble with the vessel, and a planned eight-day mission turned into nine months.
By Jim McCabe, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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