After 27 years with NASA, astronaut Sunita Williams retired on December 17, 2025. NASA officially announced her retirement on January 21, 2026.
During her long career, she completed three missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and set several records for human spaceflight. Williams became one of NASA’s most respected astronauts.
Sunita Williams is known for proudly carrying her cultural identity into space. Her father is Indian and her mother is Slovenian. She often spoke of appreciating both environments.
While serving on Expedition 32/33 in 2012, she sent a Diwali greeting from space and celebrated the festival of lights with people on Earth.
Williams, who was selected as an astronaut in 1998, spent 322 days in space and completed seven spacewalks. She once held the record for longest spacewalk by a woman.
Sunita, popularly called Suni in the US, also flew on the first manned Starliner mission. She took Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and samosas into space.
“I really value my Indian heritage and I was happy to take some of it with me into space,” Williams said during a 2013 press conference at the National Science Center in New Delhi.
Then she talked about her favorite Hindu god Ganesha.
“Ganesh has always been in my house. I’ve had Ganesh everywhere I’ve lived. So he had to go to space with me, of course. And Indian food… There’s never enough Indian food. I was so excited to come here to know I was going to eat Indian food. I had to make sure I had some samosas with me in space,” she said.
“The Bhagavad Gita… and lastly I brought a small copy, an interpretation of the Upanishads. Along with the Bhagavad Gita I also brought the Odyssey. I thought it was also quite appropriate to be in space and have such things to think about and read,” she added.
Viral video
A 2013 video went viral after she returned safely to Earth on March 18, 2025 after spending 286 days in space. Her mission, which was originally supposed to last only eight days, was extended to more than nine months.
The viral video came with false claims that Sunita Williams credited the Bhagavad Gita and the Ganesha idol for her safe return.
During an earlier interview with NDTV, she was asked if she prayed to Ganesh while in space.
“I’m more of a spiritual person. I just know he’s there with me, guiding me,” she said.
