Out-Of-This-World Speaker Headlines Woods Hole Event

FALMOUTH, MA — A former NASA astronaut will land here Friday to give a public talk about the future of space flight and the nine months she spent aboard the International Space Station.

Sunita (Suni) Williams, who grew up in Needham and has family ties to Falmouth, will speak at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Feb. 20, from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Her talk, “So Much Space … So Much Time,” is free and open to the public.

The event is part of the MBL’s Falmouth Forum, a lecture series that’s been bringing speakers to the community for 30 years.

Williams flew three missions between Earth and the orbiting space station, including NASA’s test flight of a commercial spacecraft in June 2024. Williams piloted that mission, which was intended to last eight days – but technical malfunctions stranded her and a crewmate aboard the ISS until last March. A former Navy captain, she retired from the space agency in December after 27 years.

Over her career, Williams – whose sister lives in Falmouth – logged 608 days in space, according to NASA. They included 62 hours of spacewalks, the fourth-highest total of any astronaut in U.S. history.

On Friday, Williams will explain how her experience “underscores the rapid commercialization of space and the new challenges it presents for the space community,” the MBL said in a statement.

The event takes place at the lab’s Cornelia Clapp Auditorium, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole. More information is available here.