Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore conducted the longest spacewalk in astronaut history, surpassing former astronaut Peggy Whitson’s record of 60 hours and 21 minutes. The duo ventured outside the International Space Station to remove degraded radio communications hardware and collect samples for the ISS External Microorganisms experiment.
The spacewalk began at 7:43 a.m. ET and lasted 5 hours and 26 minutes, with the entirety being streamed on NASA+ and YouTube. Williams wore a white suit marked with red stripes, while Wilmore wore an unmarked suit during their 274th spacewalk.
The veteran astronauts removed radio communications hardware, which was previously unable to be released during two previous spacewalks. The duo used a unique wrench tool to remove the bolts securing the hardware to the exterior of the space station. The radio communications hardware will be returned to Earth and refurbished on the ground.
As part of the ISS External Microorganisms experiment, Wilmore moved on to swab different places outside the space station for samples that could show whether microorganisms exist on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory. Scientists want to know how many, if any, microorganisms are released into space by the orbiting laboratory and can survive in the cosmic environment.
The astronauts postponed another planned task, which will be reassigned to future spacewalks. The task was preparing a spare joint for the Canadarm2 robotic arm in case it’s needed to replace the elbow of the 55-foot-long tool.
NASA has opted to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth no earlier than late March aboard the SpaceX Crew-9 capsule, which is currently docked outside the space station. The duo will not return home before the next flight, Crew-10, arrives at the space station.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/30/science/suni-williams-butch-wilmore-nasa-spacewalk/index.html