NASA astronauts Sunita Williams & Butch Wilmore remove ISS Antenna in their first spacewalk together 

UPDATED: Jan 30, 2025 23:47 IST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore stepped outside the Space Station on Thursday for their first spacewalk together, nearly eight months after arriving.

During the spacewalk, they removed a broken antenna and collected samples from the station’s exterior to check for any surviving microbes that may have escaped from Earth.

The task wasn’t easy — unbolting the antenna proved tricky, and it took them almost four hours to finally pry it off. Mission Control reminded them to stay alert for any floating debris from the removal.

During the job 260 miles (420 kilometers) up, Williams set a new spacewalking record for female astronauts, reports AP.

The pair expected to stay just a week when they arrived at the space station last June. But their brand new ride, Boeing’s Starliner capsule, encountered so much trouble that NASA decided to return it empty.

That left the two test pilots, both retired Navy captains, in orbit until SpaceX can bring them home. That won’t happen until late March or early April, extending their mission to 10 months because of a SpaceX delay in launching their replacements.

Williams performed a spacewalk two weeks ago with another NASA astronaut. It marked Wilmore’s first time outside this trip. Both racked up spacewalks during previous space station stays.

With nine spacewalks, Williams set a new record for women: the most time spent spacewalking over a career. Retired astronaut Peggy Whitson held the old record of 60 hours and 21 minutes, accumulated over 10 spacewalks.

(With input from AP)