Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams made her return to spacewalking on Thursday after a 12-year gap, stepping outside the International Space Station (ISS) for a mission alongside colleague Nick Hague. This spacewalk, dubbed US Spacewalk 91, is Williams’ eighth in her career and is expected to last around six and a half hours. For Hague, this marks his fourth spacewalk.
As crew member 1, Hague, wearing a suit with red stripes, and Williams, serving as crew member 2 in an unmarked suit, are conducting crucial maintenance tasks and replacing hardware. Among the tasks on their list, the duo will work on repairs to the NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray telescope, replace a rate gyro assembly responsible for station orientation control, and install patches to cover damage on the NICER’s light filters.
They will also replace a reflector used for navigation on one of the international docking adapters and inspect access areas and connector tools for future maintenance of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
Additionally, NASA announced a second spacewalk scheduled for January 23, during which Williams and fellow astronaut Wilmore will remove a radio frequency group antenna from the ISS truss, collect surface material samples for microbial analysis, and prepare a spare elbow joint for the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
Williams and Wilmore’s extended stay in space, initially planned for just eight days, continues as the return mission on the SpaceX Crew 10 spacecraft has been delayed to March 2025. This delay follows the need for further preparation on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which NASA believes will enhance astronaut safety. The astronauts were initially set to return to Earth in February 2025. Despite being eager to reunite with their families, Williams expressed the importance of completing their ongoing work on the ISS.
The astronauts are still awaiting the launch of SpaceX Crew 10 after their journey aboard Boeing’s Starliner, which had previously been declared unfit for human travel. The Starliner remains grounded, while Williams and Wilmore stay in space, continuing vital operations aboard the ISS.
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