"It was the most difficult spacewalk ever!" NASA astronauts accomplished a difficult task and set a record outside the ISS

Inna Vasilyuk News31.01.2025 18:53

NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore, 62, and Sunita Williams, 59, who performed a joint spacewalk (EVA) lasting 5 hours and 26 minutes, managed to remove a faulty radio communication unit outside the International Space Station (ISS). The previous two attempts to accomplish this difficult task had failed.

It was a special journey for Suni, as she set a new EVA record. Williams became the most experienced woman in outer space, spending a total of more than 62 hours outside the laboratory during nine missions, CBSNews reports.

A difficult task

In outer space, Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore had to remove a faulty S-band antenna mounted on an external storage platform. Two previous attempts to remove this unit had failed, so the veteran astronauts had a difficult task ahead of them.

"We were not the first or even the second team to try to do this. But with a lot of hard work together, we were able to accomplish this task," Williams said.

"It was probably the most difficult spacewalk among the ISS astronauts. Suni and I worked up a good sweat. Fantastic work, developing several plans and it worked," Wilmore added.

After removing the antenna, Barry also collected swabs from nearby vents to help researchers determine if any microbial life from inside the station managed to escape and survive in the space environment.

According to NASA, this was the 274th spacewalk in support of the assembly, maintenance, and modernization of the International Space Station since 1998.

A new record

According to experts, Suni Williams has spent a total of 62 hours and 6 minutes outside the station over nine missions. During her last EVA, she broke the record for the most time spent by a woman in the vacuum of space. The previous record holder with 60 hours and 21 minutes was NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Space.com reports.

Overall, Suni Williams ranks fourth on the world list of all spacewalks in terms of time spent in EVA.

And her colleague Barry Wilmore counted 31 hours and 2 minutes of spacewalk time during his five excursions.

With their joint spacewalk, Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore marked their 239th day in orbit, even though their mission was supposed to last only 8 days.

As a reminder, the veteran astronauts landed on the ISS on June 6, 2024, and were supposed to stay there for several days. However, due to a malfunction, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft was unable to deliver them to Earth on time and they were stuck in space.

Williams and Wilmore were originally scheduled to return home in February 2025. However, NASA announced that it had postponed the completion of the mission until spring.