NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been in the headlines since last June, when their eight-day mission to the International Space Station turned into an eight-month ordeal (and it’s not over yet) after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft encountered technical problems. Now, Williams and Wilmore will be pleased to hear that we’re finally talking about them for a different reason (it’s not the tabloid rumors about William’s health).
On January 30, Williams and Wilmore completed a 5.5-hour spacewalk outside the ISS, the 274th spacewalk on the space station to support assembly, maintenance and modernization, according to a NASA statement. With the additional spacewalk (EVA), Williams’ total time in space was 62 hours and six minutes, a new record for total spacewalk duration for a female astronaut and the fourth longest total time in space.
“NASA astronaut Suni Williams just surpassed former astronaut Peggy Whitson’s record of 60 hours and 21 minutes in space today,” the International Space Station X said in a statement. At the time, Suni was “still outside in the vacuum of space, removing radio communication equipment.”
This is the second time Williams has broken the record for the total time spent in outer space among female astronauts. Peggy Whitson, who is currently in second place, surpassed Williams’ previous record set in 2017. With ten spacewalks under her belt, Whitson still holds the world record for the most spacewalks by women.
The recent spacewalk was the ninth for Williams and the fifth for Wilmore. The purpose of the spacewalk, however, was not to set a new record. Among other things, the astronauts were tasked with removing the radio communication unit and collecting microbiological samples from outside the ISS to find out whether the station releases microorganisms into space and whether these microbes survive on the outer surfaces of the space station.
Other astronauts during previous spacewalks have tried to restore a faulty radio communication network, but Williams and Wilmore succeeded, even though the task took longer than the three hours planned by Mission Control, Space.com reports.
“It was jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, and then it came off,” Wilmore said after the spacewalk, according to Space.com. In total, he spent 31 hours and 2 minutes in space.
Despite President Trump’s unexpected call for Elon Musk to return the two astronauts as soon as possible, NASA is currently still planning for Williams and Wilmore to return in late March or early April on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. As for the idea that the two astronauts are in desperate need of rescue, this latest EVA strongly suggests otherwise. And who knows what other records Williams might break in the meantime?
