ABP Live Deep Dive | Why Astronaut Sunita Williams May Never Fly To Space Again, And Why That’s Completely Normal
Suni Williams has always spoken openly about her roots and she also said that she carried a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to space.
When NASA announced the retirement of astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams on December 27, 2025, the news quietly closed one of the most distinguished chapters in modern spaceflight. For India, it was more than an American story. Williams, whose father Deepak Pandya hails from Gujarat, has long occupied a special place in public imagination, a woman of Indian origin who went on to command space missions and set records that few astronauts can touch. According to a PTI report, Williams, 60, is currently visiting India. On Tuesday (January 20, 2026) afternoon, she participated in an interactive session hosted at the American Center in the national capital.
Posters of the event read: "Eyes on the Stars, Feet on the Ground", at the venue, described her as 'NASA Astronaut, Ret. and US Navy Captain, Ret.'
US news website CNN.com chose to headline the news as “NASA astronaut Suni Williams retires months after return from troubled mission to orbit“. It basically hinted that the recently concluded space flight that Suni Williams returned from would be her last trip to space. It does sound dramatic, even final. But within the astronaut community, her decision was anything but unusual.
The Mission That Rewrote The Ending
Williams’ final flight was never intended to be historic. In June 2024, she and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule on its first crewed test mission. The plan was modest, a week-long stay aboard the International Space Station before returning to Earth.
Then the spacecraft developed problems. Thrusters malfunctioned. Helium leaks raised safety concerns. NASA eventually decided the capsule would fly back empty. Williams and Wilmore stayed behind.
The trip that was supposed to last days, instead stretched into more than nine months. When they finally returned in March 2025 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon, the test flight had become one of the longest unplanned missions in recent memory. The world watched closely. The astronauts, unfazed, spoke calmly about their extended stay. Williams even described it as an extraordinary experience.
Unknowingly, it would become the perfect farewell.
Why Astronauts Usually Step Away After Milestones
Wilmore and Williams’ respective retirements reflect a long-standing pattern at NASA. Astronauts often retire after defining missions.
Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken did exactly that after piloting SpaceX’s first crewed flight in 2020. After decades in service, they chose to leave at a career high, having ushered in a new era of commercial spaceflight.
Williams followed the same arc. After flying the Space Shuttle, commanding the ISS, and test-piloting Boeing’s newest spacecraft, there was little left to prove.
With 27 years at NASA and 608 days in orbit, the second-highest by any American astronaut, her career had reached its natural conclusion. Once astronauts leave the corps, they no longer train for missions. Their certifications lapse. The baton passes to a new generation. Retirement, in this world, means the job is done.
The Indian Roots That Made Her Relatable
For Indian audiences, Williams was never just another NASA astronaut. Her heritage mattered. Her father, Deepak Pandya, migrated from Gujarat’s Jhulasan village in Mehsana district. Trailblazer Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams was born to this Gujarati father and a Slovenian mother, Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, on September 19, 1965, in Euclid, Ohio, in the US.
Suni Williams has always spoken openly about her roots and she also said that she carried a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to space. On visits to India, she has acknowledged how deeply connected she feels to the country.
In a nation that still reveres Kalpana Chawla, Williams extended that emotional legacy, proof that Indian-origin women could lead humanity beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
A Career Measured In Records
By the time she hung up her space suit, Williams had quietly amassed a resume few can rival. She spent 608 cumulative days in space, completed nine spacewalks totalling over 62 hours, the most by any woman, and became the first person to run a marathon in orbit. In 2012, she even completed a full triathlon aboard the space station, using improvised equipment in microgravity.
Her final mission saw her once again take command of the ISS during Expedition 72, a symbolic full circle for an astronaut who had spent much of her career keeping the orbiting laboratory running.
As She Retires, So Does The Station
There is another layer of symbolism here. Williams is stepping away just as the International Space Station itself approaches retirement.
NASA plans to decommission the ISS by 2030, ending nearly three decades of continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit. The station will be deliberately de-orbited and guided into a remote stretch of the Pacific Ocean. It will mark the end of one of humanity’s greatest collaborative scientific projects.
Williams belongs to the generation that built, repaired and commanded this floating laboratory. She is among the last of the ISS-era icons.
When Politics Met Orbit: The Trump-Musk Moment
The uneasy public exchange between US President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk briefly threatened to overshadow the otherwise routine functioning of America’s space programme.
The friction surfaced around the time astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were forced to remain aboard the International Space Station after technical failures grounded Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
President Trump publicly urged Musk to “bring them home”, framing the situation as if the astronauts had been abandoned, despite NASA already having a structured return plan in place through SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Musk amplified the rhetoric on social media, triggering speculation of a political fallout. At one point, President Trump even hinted at cancelling government contracts, while Musk theatrically suggested he might ground Dragon missions.
But the posturing quickly gave way to pragmatism. NASA’s operational reality is clear: without SpaceX, American human spaceflight would effectively stall. The Crew Dragon ultimately brought Williams back safely, reinforcing SpaceX’s central role in sustaining ISS operations.
The episode underscored a deeper shift: the fact that space exploration is no longer purely state-driven. Commercial partnerships now form the backbone of NASA’s missions, from low-Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond.
The Future Belongs To Private Space
NASA is not abandoning orbit. Instead, it is changing how it gets there. The agency is funding private companies to build commercial space stations. In the future, NASA will purchase seats and research time rather than owning the platforms.
China’s Tiangong station is already operational. Space tourism is growing. Private astronauts will soon become routine. But veterans like Williams will watch from Earth.
They have done their part.
“Space Is My Favourite Place”
In her farewell message, Williams said space was her favourite place to be. That sentiment explains everything. She did not retire because she lost the passion. She retired because she had already lived the dream, three times over.
Some careers end quietly. Others end at the summit. Suni Williams chose the summit.
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