NASA astronauts Sunita " Suni " Williams and Barry " Butch " Wilmore were outside of the International Space Station ( ISS ) yesterday for a very interesting spacewalk , which ended up being a track record - die one for Williams . After complete the almost 5.5 hours of extravehicular activity ( EVA ) , Williams is now the woman who has pass the longest time in quad beyond the confines of a blank place or shuttle .
" Williams travel by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson ’s record for full spacewalking time by a female cosmonaut . Williams now has 62 hours , 6 hour of entire spacewalk clip , quaternary on NASA ’s all - fourth dimension list , " the NASAspace station blogreports .
Whitson still holds the record for most spacewalks by a cleaning woman , with 10 . This was Williams ' ninth .
In this spacewalk , the yoke had to remove an aerial from the station truss , an operation that has been ongoing since April 2023 and has not been successful in previous try . This time , Wilmore and Williams – the two astronaut " ground " following safety concerns related to theBoeing Starliner spacecraftthat took them to blank space in June 2024 and was think to return them eight day after – succeed .
Spacewalks are not at all soft ; NASA estimates that aroundone - fifthof extravehicular body process ends up make either serious incident or close claim . One of the most concerning case was ESA astronautLuca Parmitano almost drowning in space . In that case , weewee was compile in the inside of his suit and helmet , slowly making its style across his face to his nose and mouth .
" Williams and Wilmore completed their primary objectives , admit removing a receiving set frequency group antenna meeting place from the station ’s truss and collect samples of surface fabric for analysis from the Destiny science laboratory and the Quest airlock , " NASA reported .
Among the different operations carry out on the exterior of the ISS , the duocollected samplesof the surface material – potential sampling of microbial life – around the Quest air lock and outside the Destiny laboratory . As part of theISS External Microorganismsinvestigation , scientists want to see if bacteria have detect a way to make it on the outside of the place station . Last year they discovered bacteria on the inside of the ISS hadmutated into somethingnot seen on Earth before .
