NASA’s two stuck astronauts, Commander Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, on Thursday took their first spacewalk together, as they exited the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in, reported news agency AP.
Commander Williams and Wilmore floated out to perform maintenance work and wipe the International Space Station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that may still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents.
“Here we go,” AP quoted Wilmore as saying as he emerged 420 kilometres above Spain.
Commander Williams and Wilmore were expected to stay just a week when they arrived at the space station last June. However, their brand new ride, Boeing’s Starliner capsule, encountered so much trouble that NASA decided to return it empty.
That left the two test pilots, both retired Navy captains, in orbit until SpaceX can 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. The latest spacewalk marked Wilmore’s first time outside. Both racked up spacewalks during previous space station stays.
NASA-Musk at work?
Meanwhile, NASA on Wednesday said that it is “expeditiously working” with billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX to safely bring astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth after being stranded at the International Space Station for several months.
“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,” said NASA in a post on X.
Earlier, Elon Musk posted on X, “The President has asked SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the ISS as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
In response to this post, President Donald Trump expressed frustration with the Joe Biden administration’s handling of the situation involving two astronauts, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who have been aboard the International Space Station since June 5, 2024. The astronauts were left on the ISS after an issue with their Boeing Starliner capsule delayed their return to Earth.
