One of NASA’s two stranded astronauts got a welcome change of scenery Thursday as she took her first spacewalk since arriving at the International Space Station more than seven months ago.
Suni Williams, the station commander, along with his colleague Nick Hague, had to tackle some overdue outdoor repair work. They appeared as the orbiting laboratory flew 420 kilometers over Turkmenistan.
“I’m coming out,” Williams radioed.
The plans called for Williams to go out again next week with Butch Wilmore.
Williams and Wilmore took off on what was supposed to be a week-long test flight aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule last June. But Starliner problems delayed their return and NASA ordered the capsule returned empty.
Then SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacement rockets, meaning the pair won’t be home until late March or early April – 10 months after launch.
Walk among the stars
It was the first spacewalk by NASA astronauts since an aborted spacewalk last summer. US spacewalks have been put on hold after water from the cooling circuit for an astronaut’s suit leaked into the airlock. NASA said the problem has now been resolved.
It was the eighth spacewalk for Williams, who has lived on the space station before, and the fourth for Hague.
Hague and Williams were tasked with replacing the station’s hardware, such as a planar reflector, and repairing the station’s Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) C-ray telescope. Part of this process involves placing wedge-shaped patches at specific locations on the telescope to prevent unwanted sunlight from interfering with the X-ray measurements being taken.
The spacewalk, which began at 8 a.m. ET, will last about 6½ hours and is the 273rd spacewalk to service the ISS.
