NASA’s two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in.
Commander Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore removed a broken antenna and wiped the station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents.
After some initial trouble unbolting the balky antenna, the astronauts finally pried it off nearly four hours after popping out the hatch. Mission Control urged them to watch for any floating parts from the antenna removal.
During the job 260 miles (420 kilometers) up, Williams set a new spacewalking record for female astronauts, The Associated Press reported.
The pair expected to stay just a week when they arrived at the space station last June. But their brand new ride, Boeing’s Starliner capsule, encountered so much trouble that NASA decided to return it empty.
That left the two test pilots, both retired Navy captains, in orbit until SpaceX can bring them home. That won’t happen until late March or early April, extending their mission to 10 months because of a SpaceX delay in launching their replacements.
Williams performed a spacewalk two weeks ago with another NASA astronaut. It marked Wilmore's first time outside this trip. Both racked up spacewalks during previous space station stays.
With nine spacewalks, Williams set a new record for women: the most time spent spacewalking over a career. Retired astronaut Peggy Whitson held the old record of 60 hours and 21 minutes, accumulated over 10 spacewalks.
