How many times did Sunita Williams go to space? What we know as an astronaut stuck in space trying to “remember what it’s like to walk”

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams flew on three incredible missions to the International Space Station (ISS). As of January 2025, Williams is on board the ISS as part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission.

First mission: Expedition 14/15

She traveled to space on December 9, 2006, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery for Mission STS-116 as a Flight Engineer on board Expedition 14, where she could return on the Earth-bound crew of Expedition 15.

For the nearly six months spent on board the ISS, Williams performed four spacewalks in a total of 29 hours and 17 minutes. That was the highest cumulative time by a woman spacewalker up to that point in history.

Second mission: Expedition 32/33

Her second space travel took place on July 15, 2012, when she launched aboard Soyuz TMA-05M. As a Flight Engineer and then as Expedition 33 commander, Williams established herself further in space.

In this mission, she performed three more spacewalks, increasing her total extravehicular activity time to over 50 hours, a remarkable achievement demonstrating her skills.

Current mission: Boeing crew flight test

Sunita Williams is currently flying on the ISS in January 2025. The mission is part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test. Initially, the crewed flight test was intended to be an eight-day mission until it was launched on June 5, 2024. Due to some technical issues on board the Starliner spacecraft, the crewed flight test had to be extended.

Williams continues to be an integral part of the crew, with her return to Earth scheduled for February 2025, according to NASA.

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Astronaut Sunita Williams can't recall how to walk

Williams, who has been marooned aboard the ISS since June 2024, recently revealed her emotional and physical struggles during her record-breaking seven-month space mission. Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore were originally scheduled to spend only eight days in space when technical issues with the Boeing Starliner capsule caused a huge extension of their stay.

Speaking to students at Needham High School, Williams revealed that she is "trying to remember what it’s like to walk," the CBS affiliate WBZ-TV reports, noting that it is challenging to adapt to life in microgravity.

"I haven’t walked. I haven’t sat down. I haven’t laid down. You don’t have to. You can just close your eyes and float where you are right here".

"We knew that it would be probably a month or so, honestly. But the extended stay was just a little bit different."

Williams described the extended stay as a "bit of a shock," confessing that she and her crew were prepared for a month but did not anticipate being stuck for nearly seven months.

The astronauts celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays aboard the ISS and voted in the 2024 United States elections by mail.

Delayed return is blamed on a series of malfunctions the Starliner has had, including thruster failures: five of the 28 thrusters on the spacecraft didn't operate as expected during their approach to the ISS. This has led NASA to weigh safety above speed in deciding it was too unsafe to bring them back via Starliner and instead opting for a SpaceX Crew-9 capsule for their eventual return.

NASA has announced that Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to return no earlier than March 2025 after delays pushed back their expected launch date.

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SpaceX's participation in bringing Sunita Williams back

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and his aerospace company SpaceX have been requested by President Donald Trump to assist NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore as they reach out in their almost eight months aboard the ISS.

Posting on his TRUTH social media platform, Trump said:

"I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to 'go get' the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration."

Elon Musk has confirmed the request of Trump via X (formerly Twitter), where he says:

"The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long."