The American space agency NASA announced two days ago that American astronaut Sunita Williams, whose space mission was extended from eight days to nine months due to technical issues, retired at the end of last December. Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore became famous after their mission to the International Space Station, originally scheduled for eight days in June 2024, lasted more than nine months. This is significantly longer than the standard mission duration, which usually does not exceed six months. The astronauts were able to return to Earth in March of this year after 286 days in space. Sunita Williams (60 years old) joined NASA in 1998 and participated in three missions to the ISS, the first of which took place in 2006. During her career, she spent 608 days in space, which is the second-longest duration in NASA's history. She also holds the record for the most cumulative time spent on spacewalks at 62 hours and 6 minutes, which is the fourth-longest time for any NASA astronaut.
