NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are stranded in space for the last eight months, ventured out of the International Space Station for their first spacewalk together.
Indian-origin astronaut and Commander Sunita Williams floated out of the space station to perform maintenance work with Wilmore on Thursday. The two astronauts also wiped the International Space Station’s exterior for any microbes that may still be alive after launching from Earth.
“Here we go,” Wilmore said as he emerged 420 kilometres above Earth, in a video livestreamed by NASA on X.
"We can’t sanitise everything we send to space and humans carry their own microbiomes and continuously regenerate microbial communities. It’s important to understand and address how well current designs and processes prevent or limit the spread of human contamination," NASA said.
Take a look at the video here:
Stranded in space
Both Williams and Wilmore were expected to return to Earth after a week in space in June. But their spaceship, Boeing’s Starliner capsule, encountered many problems and NASA decided to return it empty.
{{/usCountry}}Both Williams and Wilmore were expected to return to Earth after a week in space in June. But their spaceship, Boeing’s Starliner capsule, encountered many problems and NASA decided to return it empty.
{{/usCountry}}That left the two test in orbit until SpaceX can send another spacecraft to 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.
Two weeks ago, Williams performed a spacewalk with another NASA astronaut. Thursday marked Wilmore's first time outside this trip. Both racked up spacewalks during previous space station stays.
“Nasa and SpaceX are expeditiously working to safely return the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as soon as practical, while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions,” a NASA spokesperson said.
US President Donald Trump said he had asked Elon Musk's SpaceX to return the two NASA astronauts from the International Space Station.
(Also read: Donald Trump asks Elon Musk to ‘go get’ 2 brave astronauts ‘abandoned in space’)