'Trailblazer in human spaceflight': NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who logged 608 days in space, retires

Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who has set numerous human spaceflight records, including logging 608 days in space, retired after 27 years of service in the US agency.

Her retirement took effect at the end of December, NASA said on Tuesday.

Williams, 60, was one of the two astronauts who recently got stuck for months at the International Space Station Their mission should have lasted just a week, but stretched to more than nine months because of Starliner trouble. In the end, they caught a ride home last March with SpaceX. 

Williams' crewmate on the ill-fated capsule test flight, Butch Wilmore, had left NASA last summer. 

"Suni Williams has been a trailblazer in human spaceflight, shaping the future of exploration through her leadership aboard the space station and paving the way for commercial missions to low Earth orbit," NASA said in a statement.

"Her work advancing science and technology has laid the foundation for Artemis missions to the Moon and advancing toward Mars, and her extraordinary achievements will continue to inspire generations to dream big and push the boundaries of what's possible. Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement, and thank you for your service to NASA and our nation," it said.

Williams logged 608 days in space over three station missions—second on the list of cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut. She also set a record for the most spacewalking time by a woman: 62 hours during nine excursions. She was the first person to run a marathon in space.