RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - High above the Earth at the International Space Station Wednesday, September 5, 2012, U.S. Astronaut Suni Williams set a new record for the most time space walking logged by a female. Williams is based in Houston, Texas, and serves as a Flight Engineer on Expedition 32 at the International Space Station.
The moment Williams became the new record holder for total spacewalk time by any female astronaut was at 2 hours, 12 minutes into today's spacewalk, which is the third for Expedition 32. This is her sixth spacewalk (that's also a record number for women space travelers) in her career. Each spacewalk can last six to eight hours, depending on the mission. This spacewalk is still ongoing, which means Williams is still adding to her tally of spacewalk hours, which is around 40 hours. The walk began at 7:06 a.m. EDT. This marks the second spacewalk in less than a week conducted by Flight Engineers Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide.
CLICK HERE to watch the spacewalk LIVE on NASA TV while it continues for several more hours today.
The main task of today's spacewalk is to complete the installation of a spare power unit (called the Main Bus Switching Unit) that was complicated last week by a possible misalignment and damaged bolt threads. This MBSU is located on the International Space Station's truss and caused the problems during the August 30, 2012 spacewalk. Williams and Hoshide built some improvised tools to help complete the installation today. You may recognize a toothbrush-looking item in this image!
MBSU cleaning tools to be used for installation work during the spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV
The tools will be used to clean the bolts and receptacles and repair the bolt threads.
Suni Williams, NASA
CLICK HERE to learn more about Astronaut Suni Williams.
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CLICK HERE to read Williams' latest from-space blog entry a day before she set this record.
CLICK HERE for Expedition 32 mission page.
Meteorologist Carrie Rose
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