NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore completed their first spacewalk together on Thursday, nearly eight months after arriving at the International Space Station. The two astronauts ventured outside the station to remove a malfunctioning antenna and to clean the station’s exterior, looking for any surviving microbes that may have escaped Earth during the launch.
They faced difficulty trying to remove the stubborn antenna, which had previously been problematic for other spacewalkers. “It’s not budging,” Wilmore reported as they worked 260 miles (420 kilometers) above Earth. NASA Mission Control prioritized the antenna repair, canceling other tasks so the astronauts could focus on it.
Williams and Wilmore were initially scheduled to stay only a week at the space station when they arrived in June. However, issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule delayed their return, and NASA decided to send the capsule back empty.
The two astronauts, both retired Navy captains and test pilots, will remain in orbit until SpaceX is able to bring them back. Due to a delay in launching their replacements, their mission will now be extended to 10 months, with their return expected in late March or early April.
Williams had already completed a spacewalk two weeks ago with another NASA astronaut, while this marked Wilmore’s first spacewalk on this mission. Both astronauts had previously accumulated spacewalks during earlier stays at the space station.