Sunita Williams

Born

September 19, 1965, Euclid (Cuyahoga County) source

Also known as

Suni Williams, Sunita L. Williams, Sunita Pandya

Known as

Aviation Space, Military, Women

Suni Williams was born in Euclid, a Cleveland suburb, in 1965, while her father, the Indian-born neuroanatomist Deepak Pandya, was a postdoctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University; the family moved to Boston in 1966, and she considers Needham, Massachusetts, her hometown. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987, flew H-46 helicopters, led a detachment in the Hurricane Andrew relief effort in 1992, and became a Navy test pilot and test pilot school instructor. NASA selected her in 1998. She spent 192 days on the International Space Station in 2006-2007, when she ran the Boston Marathon on a treadmill in orbit, and returned in 2012 as commander of Expedition 33. In June 2024 she and Butch Wilmore made the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner; when NASA decided to bring the capsule home empty, they joined the station crew and came back on SpaceX Crew-9 in March 2025 after 286 days. She retired from NASA on 27 December 2025 with 608 days in space and nine spacewalks totalling 62 hours 6 minutes, the most by any woman. Her Ohio tie is her birth in Euclid.

• Euclid (1965-1966)
  birthplace; her father Deepak Pandya was then a postdoctoral fellow in anatomy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland (from 1964) before moving to Boston in 1966 Cuyahoga County · source

1. 1965 Born in Euclid on 19 September. source
2. 1966 Her father moved from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland to Boston, to the Aphasia Research Center at the Boston VA and Boston University School of Medicine. source
3. 1983 Graduated from Needham High School in Needham, Massachusetts. source
4. 1987 Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in physical science and was commissioned an ensign in May. source
5. 1989 Designated a naval aviator in July and trained on the H-46 Sea Knight helicopter. source
6. 1992 In September, led an H-46 detachment to Miami for Hurricane Andrew relief, flying from USS Sylvania. source
7. 1993 Graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in December; returned there as an instructor in the Rotary Wing Department in 1995. source
8. 1995 Received an M.S. in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology. source
9. 1998 Selected as a NASA astronaut in June while deployed on USS Saipan; reported for training in August. source
10. 2006 Launched on 9 December with STS-116 to join Expedition 14 as flight engineer; made four spacewalks totalling 29 hours 17 minutes, then a record for a woman. source
11. 2007 Ran the Boston Marathon on 16 April on a station treadmill, the first marathon run in space, finishing in about 4 hours 24 minutes. source
12. 2007 Landed at Edwards Air Force Base with the STS-117 crew on 22 June. source
13. 2012 Launched on a Soyuz from Baikonur on 14 July (15 July local time) for Expeditions 32/33; commanded the station in Expedition 33 and made three spacewalks to replace a power component and repair a radiator ammonia leak; landed on 18 November after 127 days. source
14. 2024 Launched with Butch Wilmore on 5 June on the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner, reaching the station on 6 June; after NASA chose to return Starliner uncrewed, the pair joined Expeditions 71/72, and she commanded Expedition 72. source
15. 2025 Splashed down off Tallahassee, Florida, aboard SpaceX Crew-9 on 18 March after 286 days in space and 4,576 orbits. source
16. 2025 Retired from NASA on 27 December after 27 years, with 608 days in space, second on NASA's list. source

• Born: Euclid, Cuyahoga County Euclid · Cuyahoga County
• Connected: Euclid, Cuyahoga County Euclid · Cuyahoga County

• NASA Biographical Data: Sunita L. Williams (Captain, U.S. Navy, Ret.), NASA astronaut (January 2026) 2026, NASA Johnson Space Center

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunita_Williams
• https://www.nasa.gov/people/sunita-l-williams/
• https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-retires/
• https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/welcome-home-nasas-spacex-crew-9-back-on-earth-after-science-mission/
• https://usna.edu/Notables/Bios/1987williams.php
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Pandya
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid,_Ohio
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunita_Williams_in_2018.jpg

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-15.

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