Jeffrey Nels Williams (born January 18, 1958) is a retired

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

officer and a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

astronaut. He is a veteran of four

space flight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in ...

s and formerly held the American record for most days spent in space, which was surpassed in April 2017 by his colleague

Peggy Whitson Peggy Annette Whitson (born February 9, 1960) is an American biochemistry researcher, retired NASA astronaut, and former NASA Chief Astronaut. Whitson has a total of 665 days in space, more than any other woman or American. Her first space mi ...

. He still holds the record of the longest time in space for an American man.

Early life and education

Williams was born in Superior, Wisconsin, and raised in Winter, Wisconsin. During his childhood, Williams reached the rank of Star Scout, the third-highest in the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

. During the Jamboree on the Air in October 2009 he communicated with Boy Scouts in the National Scouting Museum in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

from the International Space Station. Williams graduated from Winter High School in Winter, Wisconsin, in 1976. He earned a degree in applied science and engineering from the

U.S. Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

in 1980, receiving his commission in the

NASA career

Williams served with the Army at Johnson Space Center from 1987 to 1992 before training as a

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

. In 1996, he was selected by

as an astronaut candidate. In July 2002, Williams served as the commander of the NEEMO 3 mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory, living and working underwater for six days. Jeffrey Williams in Destiny

STS-101

In 2000, Williams launched to space for the first time on

STS-101 STS-101 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Atlantis''. The mission was a 10-day mission conducted between 19 May 2000 and 29 May 2000. The mission was designated 2A.2a and was a resuppl ...

. STS-101 delivered supplies to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

, hauled up using a Spacehab double module and an Integrated Cargo Carrier pallet. Williams and fellow crew member James Voss performed a spacewalk and then reboosted the station from 230 miles (370 km) to 250 miles (400 km). They returned to Earth after over 9 days on orbit.

Expedition 13

Jeffrey Williams inside the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft

Williams also flew aboard the

Soyuz TMA-8 Soyuz TMA-8 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. Crew Soyuz TMA-8 was a transport mission for portions of the International Space Station (ISS) '' Expedition 13'' crew. The fligh ...

mission, replacing Expedition 12 astronaut William S. McArthur. He was previously in

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

as the Expedition 13 Flight Engineer and Science Officer aboard the International Space Station. He returned to Earth on September 28, 2006. During his six-month stint at the

in 2006, Williams orbited the Earth more than 2,800 times. During

Expedition 13 Expedition 13 was the 13th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), and launched at 02:30 UTC on 30 March 2006. The expedition used the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft, which stayed at the station for the duration of the expedition for emerge ...

, he worked on hundreds of experiments, walked in space twice, and captured more photographs of the Earth than any other astronaut in history. Many of his photos are found in his book ''The Work of His Hands: A View of God's Creation from Space'', where he shares personal narrative and vivid photos of the Earth. On August 24, 2006, a taped message made by him to be played at an official NASA press conference was accidentally played over the air-to-ground loop, the tape revealing that the

Crew Exploration Vehicle The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was a component of the U.S. NASA Vision for Space Exploration plan. A competition was held to design a spacecraft that could carry humans to the destinations envisioned by the plan. The winning design was th ...

under development to replace the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

after 2010 would be named Orion after the famed wintertime constellation.

Expedition 21/22

Williams also served as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 21 and assumed command of Expedition 22 in November 2009 having arrived on the International Space Station with his crew mates via Soyuz TMA-16 which launched on September 30, 2009. Williams with Expedition 22 Flight Engineer

Maksim Surayev Maksim Viktorovich Surayev (russian: Максим Викторович Сураев, born 24 May 1972) is a retired Russian cosmonaut and politician. He served in the State Duma between 2016 and 2021. Personal Surayev was born in Chelyabinsk. D ...

landed their Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft on the steppes of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

on March 18, 2010, wrapping up a 167-day stay aboard the Space Station.

First live tweetup from space

ISS-47 Jeff Williams works with the SmartCycler in the Destiny lab

On October 21, 2009, Williams and his Expedition 21 crewmate, Nicole Stott, participated in the first NASA Tweetup from the station with members of the public gathered at

Headquarters in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

This involved the first ''live''

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

connection for the astronauts. Previously, astronauts on board the Space Shuttle or ISS have sent the messages they desire to send as tweets down to Mission Control which then posted the message via the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

to Twitter.

Expedition 47/48

Williams returned to space station in 2016 as part of Expedition 47 /48. Upon the departure of

Soyuz TMA-19M Soyuz TMA-19M was a 2015 Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It was launched on December 15, 2015 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, transporting three members of the Expedition 46 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-1 ...

he became commander of Expedition 48. Williams was returned to Earth safely on 6 September 2016. On Expedition 47, Williams surpassed

Scott Kelly (astronaut) Scott Joseph Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American engineer, retired astronaut, and naval aviator. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on Expeditions 26, 45, and 46. Kelly's first ...

's record of 520 cumulative days in space which was set when he returned from space on March 1, 2016; Williams beat this record with 534 cumulative days.

Personal life

Williams is a committed Christian. Following his return from the Expedition 21 mission, he wrote the book ''The Work of His Hands: A View Of God's Creation From Space'' about his experience in space. The book reflects in Williams words the "vivid lessons about the meticulous goodness of divine providence, God's care for His creation, and His wisdom in ordering the universe." He is married to Anne-Marie Williams.

Awards and decorations

References

External links

Jeffrey Williams' book ''The Work of His Hands: A View of God's Creation from Space''
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Jeff Williams Enters the BEAM Module
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Jeffrey 1958 births Living people Aquanauts United States Army astronauts NASA civilian astronauts Commanders of the International Space Station Crew members of the International Space Station People from Superior, Wisconsin United States Military Academy alumni United States Army colonels American test pilots Military personnel from Wisconsin Recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the Defense Superior Service Medal Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal Recipients of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal American Lutherans Space Shuttle program astronauts Recipients of the Meritorious Service Medal (United States) Spacewalkers