NASA Astronaut Suni Williams Sets Spacewalking Record

NASA astronaut Suni Williams has made history by logging the most spacewalking time for any female astronaut, totaling 62 hours and 6 minutes, SciTech Daily reported.

On Thursday, Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore completed a successful spacewalk, which began at 7:43 a.m. EST and concluded at 1:09 p.m. EST. This marked Williams’ ninth spacewalk and Wilmore’s fifth, contributing to the 274th spacewalk in support of the International Space Station (ISS).

During the mission, Williams surpassed former astronaut Peggy Whitson’s’ record for female spacewalking time. The astronauts completed key objectives, including the removal of a radio frequency group antenna assembly and the collection of surface material samples from the Destiny laboratory and Quest airlock. These samples will be analyzed to assess the survival of microorganisms on the ISS exterior. Additionally, they prepared a spare elbow joint for the Canadarm2 robotic arm for potential future use.