Kochi: US astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore set a new record by performing 5.5-hour spacewalk, media reports quoting NASA said.
They duo stepped out of the International Space Station (ISS) to achieve the feat, setting a new record, the US space agency said.
This was the ninth spacewalk of Sunita,
who holds a record of 62 hours, 6 minutes of total spacewalk time. For Wilmore it is the fifth spacewalk.
They carried out their mission like removing a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station’s truss and collecting samples of surface material for analysis from the Destiny laboratory and the Quest airlock.
NASA said that it was working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the safe return of the two astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station (ISS). Sunita and Wilmore arrived at the ISS in June 2024 aboard Boeing’s Starliner to return after spending only eight days on the orbiting laboratory.
Technical problems led to NASA changing the schedule of their return trip. NASA’s plans to use SpaceX to bring them back in February, 2025, got suspended due to SpaceX preparing a new spacecraft.
The astronauts are scheduled to return on the Crew 9 mission at the end of March 2025, after spending 300 days in space.
Photo credit: X
