NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams Creates History, Sets New Record For Spacewalk Time

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams made history on Thursday, by surpassing the record for the most time spent in the vacuum of space by a woman. During a 5-hour and 26-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station, Williams logged her ninth EVA (extravehicular activity) and accumulated a total of 62 hours and 6 minutes of spacewalking time.

"I know we were not the first, we were not even the second crew to do this, but somehow we were able to get it done," Williams said before the end of the spacewalk.

Williams and her fellow astronaut Barry Wilmore successfully removed a faulty radio communications unit from the space station, a task that had been attempted twice before. The two astronauts worked together to free the radio frequency group (RFG), using a combination of different approaches and "a little bit of brute force”.

"There it goes, it's free," Williams radioed as the RFG finally came free. "Holy moly!"

"It was jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, and then it came loose," Wilmore said later, soon after the spacewalk ended. Notably, the extended work required to free the radio frequency group (RFG) came at a cost, as the two astronauts ran out of time to accomplish all the tasks planned for the day's extravehicular activity (EVA).

Williams and Wilmore, who launched together on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft and are serving together on the station's Expedition 72 crew, began the 5-hour and 26-minute spacewalk at 7.43 am EST (1243 GMT). After configuring their tethers and tools, Wilmore moved to the RFG work site while Williams rode the Canadarm2 robotic arm to meet him at the S-band antenna on the starboard side of the station's backbone truss.

The removal of the failed RFG, a key component of the station's primary command and data antenna assembly, was first attempted in April 2023. NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, who was on that earlier spacewalk, advised Williams and Wilmore on the renewed attempt.

Williams' record-breaking spacewalk time surpasses the previous total of 60 hours and 21 minutes set by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2017. However, Whitson still holds the record for the most spacewalks by a woman at 10, while Sunita Williams now ranks fourth on the worldwide list of all spacewalkers by time spent on EVA.