#spacelegacy

Sunita Williams has retired. 27 years, three expeditions, 608 days weightless – numbers that feel almost gentle next to the sheer humanity she brought to orbit. From a kid in Massachusetts with Indian-Slovenian roots to commanding the ISS twice, she showed what’s possible when courage meets collaboration. Down here in Australia, where our dishes still track missions and our researchers partner on the next lunar steps, her career leaves a soft challenge: keep building bridges, not walls – whether they’re between nations or between Earth and the stars.

Sunita Williams has stepped down from NASA after 27 years, closing a career etched in 608 days aloft, nine spacewalks (a women's record), and the quiet audacity of running a marathon aboard the ISS. In an era of fleeting headlines, her work recalls a deeper patience: exploration as shared human endeavour, not conquest. What does such persistence ask of us here on the ground?