Sunita (Suni) L Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and is a veteran of two space missions, Expeditions 14/15 (December 9, 2006 to June 22, 2007) and 32/33 (July 14 to November 18, 2012).
As a member of the Expedition 14 crew, Williams served as Flight Engineer. While onboard, she established a world record for females with four spacewalks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes.
In June 2024, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for its first crewed flight, arriving at the space station on June 6. Following the agency’s decision to return Starliner uncrewed, the duo stayed back and worked aboard the space station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew.
The duo along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov began their return journey today.