A NASA astronaut who was stuck in space for nine months because of problems with her spacecraft has retired after 27 years of service, the space agency has said.
Suni Williams stepped down from her post on 27 December - making her ill-fated mission her last journey to space.
She and fellow astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore set out on an eight-day mission in June 2024 to test fly Boeing's new Starliner capsule on its first crewed mission when they were unexpectedly marooned.
Despite the incident, Ms Williams yesterday called her time with NASA "an incredible honour."
"Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favourite place to be," she said in a statement.
Boeing's new Starliner developed propulsion issues while Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore were travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) and it was deemed unfit to fly back.
The technical problems prompted NASA to entrust the return of their astronauts to Elon Musk's SpaceX, snubbing Boeing.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement that Ms Williams had been a "trailblazer in human spaceflight," adding that she shaped the "future of exploration through her leadership aboard the space station" and paved the way for commercial missions to low Earth orbit.
During her career, Ms Williams logged 608 days in space - the second most cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut, the agency said.
She also ranks sixth on the list of longest single spaceflights by an American due to the Starliner incident, NASA added.
Ms Williams has completed nine spacewalks totalling 62 hours, the most spacewalk time by a woman and fourth-most on the all-time cumulative spacewalk duration list.
