CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Suni Williams — one of two astronauts stuck for months at the International Space Station — has retired.
The space agency announced the news Tuesday, saying her retirement took effect at the end of December.
Williams' crewmate on Boeing’s ill-fated capsule test flight, Butch Wilmore, left NASA last summer.
The pair launched to the space station in 2024, the first people to fly Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule. 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.
Boeing's next Starliner mission will carry cargo — not people — to the space station. NASA wants to make sure all of the capsule's thruster and other issues are solved before putting anyone on board. The trial run will take place later this year.
Williams, 60, a former Navy captain, spent more than 27 years at NASA, logging 608 days in space over three station missions. She also set a record for the most spacewalking time by a woman: 62 hours during nine excursions.
NASA's new administrator Jared Isaacman called her “a trailblazer in human spaceflight.”
"Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement," he added in a statement.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - From left, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, Russia's Alexander Gorbunov, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams sit inside a SpaceX capsule onboard the SpaceX recovery ship Megan after landing in the water off the coast of Florida, March 18, 2025. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP, File)
FILE - Astronaut Suni Williams is interviewed at Johnson Space Center on March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s parliament on Friday elected Min Aung Hlaing, a general who ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021 and kept an iron grip on power for the past five years, as the country’s new president.
The move marks a nominal return to an elected government but is widely considered to be an effort to keep the army in power after an election organized by the military that opponents and independent observers deemed neither free nor fair.
Min Aung Hlaing was one of three nominees for the president’s post, but was virtually guaranteed the job as lawmakers from military-backed parties and appointed members from the army hold a commanding majority in parliament.
Aung Lin Dwe, speaker of parliament’s combined upper and lower house, announced that Min Aung Hlaing won 429 out of the 584 votes. The two runners-up became vice presidents.
Min Aung Hlaing, who holds the rank of senior general, had earlier relinquished his post of the commander-in-chief because the constitution prohibits the president from simultaneously holding the top military position. A close aide, Gen. Ye Win Oo, took over the powerful job.
The 69-year-old Min Aung Hlaing had been the military chief since 2011. Under a military-imposed constitution, he held major power even before overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government.
Parliament members were elected in three phases in December and January. Major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi’s former ruling National League for Democracy, were either blocked from running or refused to compete under conditions they deemed unfair. Suu Kyi has been held in prison.
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe, center, arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
FILE - Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of Myanmar's military council, inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
Myanmar's military representatives and lawmakers arrive to attend a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026.(AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Myanmar's military representatives arrive for a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Myanmar's military representatives arrive for a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe, center, arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
