NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams Walked Among The Stars In First Spacewalk In 7 Months
20th Jan 2025
One of NASA’s two stranded astronauts onboard the International Space Station undertook a spacewalk after nearly 7-months in orbit. Suni Williams, ISS Station Chief and one of the castaway astronauts, performed the repairs with support from her colleague, Nick Hague. While a different view was welcomed by Williams, it also marked another milestone: the first spacewalk since NASA halted them last year. Plans are now underway to bring the two astronauts home.
What Happened To Williams & Wilmore?
In mid-2024, two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, were launched into space heading for the International Space Station. The mission was to perform research and test Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Upon arrival, their original weeklong mission was considerably elongated when NASA decided to recall the Boeing spacecraft without any crew. Since then, both astronauts have been working onboard the ISS awaiting their return mission – equating to 7-months in space and counting. NASA plans to bring both astronauts home via SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft in March/April 2025.
First NASA Spacewalk In 7-months
On January 16, 2025, Suni Williams, along with fellow astronaut Nick Hague, performed a spacewalk to conduct much needed repairs, maintenance and upgrades, NASA said in a statement. This included “removing and replacing a rate gyro assembly, installing patches to cover damaged areas of light filters on the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer x-ray telescope (NICER), and replacing a reflector device on one of the International docking adapters.” Some of the first words heard from Williams was: “I am coming out”, marking a successful disembarkment from ISS. But what made this spacewalk even more interesting is that it’s the first spacewalk NASA has authorised since mid-last year.
What happened to the Boeing Starliner Spacecraft?
On June 6, 2024, NASA said both they and Boeing “identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters… as Starliner approached the space station.” To protect the safety of both astronauts, NASA ordered the spacecraft to return unmanned, leaving both Williams and Wilmore on the ISS.
Since Starliner’s return both companies have conducted research and reviews into why the spacecraft experienced issues. They collected flight data and performed ground testing. Further reviews, alongside agency propulsion experts, identified that Starliner breached safety requirements resulting in both Williams and Wilmore being moved to the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
NASA’s Administrator, Bill Nelson, said: “Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star.”
Halting Spacewalks In June 2024
Due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit in one of the spacesuits, NASA was forced to halt all spacewalks until the issue was fixed. Since then, all astronauts aboard ISS have been precluded from venturing outside the confines of the space station. NASA has revealed that the spacesuit issue has now been fixed. And with their first spacewalk since resuming being a success, NASA plans to conduct another spacewalk in the coming weeks and months.
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