[1] As such, from August 2024 until March 2025, Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore are pivoting ahead to undertake various scientific experiments and maintenance tasks aboard the International Space Station.

After a six-month temporary assignment at the Naval Coastal System Command, she was designated a Basic Diving Officer.

She received initial H-46 Sea Knight training in Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 3 (HC-3), and was then assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 (HC-8) in Norfolk, Virginia, with which she made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort.

In September 1992, she was the officer-in-charge of an H-46 detachment sent to Miami, Florida, for Hurricane Andrew relief operations aboard USS Sylvania.

She graduated in December, and was assigned to the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as an H-46 Project Officer and V-22 chase pilot in the T-2.

Fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham cut her hair aboard the International Space Station and it was brought back to Earth by the STS-116 crew.

[10][15] On December 18, 2007, during the fourth spacewalk of Expedition 16, Peggy Whitson surpassed Williams, with a cumulative EVA time of 32 hours, 36 minutes.

[16][17] In early March 2007, she received a tube of wasabi in a Progress spacecraft resupply mission in response to her request for more spicy food.

Poor weather at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral forced mission managers to skip three landing attempts there over 24 hours.

They ultimately diverted Atlantis to Edwards Air Force Base in California, where the shuttle touched down at 3:49 p.m. EDT, returning Williams home after a 192-day stay in space.

On the Soyuz spacecraft, she was accompanied by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.

A procedural delay led the capsule to land in the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, some 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the planned touchdown site.

[32] Subsequently, she began working with Boeing and SpaceX to train in their commercial crew vehicles, along with other chosen astronauts.

[36] As of 29 January 2025[update], she remains on the ISS space station with fellow astronaut Barry Wilmore due to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner's service module; both are scheduled to return on SpaceX's Crew 9 mission when it concludes in March 2025 (Crew 9 was launched in September 2024, with two vacant seats to accommodate Williams and Wilmore's return).

She had a pet Jack Russell terrier named Gorby who was featured with her on the Dog Whisperer television show on the National Geographic Channel on November 12, 2010.

On October 4, 2007, Williams spoke at the American Embassy School, and then met Manmohan Singh, the then-Prime Minister of India.

[7] In 2009, the club Slovenian Astronaut (Slovenski astronavt) arranged a memorial room for her in Leše, Tržič, northwestern Slovenia.

[45] In May 2013, the former President of Slovenia Borut Pahor awarded Williams a medal of merit for her contribution to the popularisation of science and technology among the Slovenian youth.

[52] [1] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.