Two NASA astronauts, Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, successfully removed a faulty radio communications unit outside of the International Space Station on Thursday (Jan. 30), after two previous attempts were unsuccessful. The extended work required to free the radio frequency group (RFG) caused Williams and Wilmore to run out of time to complete all planned tasks for the extravehicular activity (EVA).
The spacewalk, which lasted 5 hours and 26 minutes, began at 7:43 a.m. EST (1243 GMT). The astronauts worked on removing the RFG, a component of the station’s primary command and data antenna assembly, which had previously proved challenging during earlier spacewalks. The successful removal was achieved after several different approaches and “a little bit of brute force.”
After successfully removing the RFG, Williams and Wilmore spent the remaining time carefully moving the unit back into the Quest airlock so it could be returned to Earth for refurbishment.
During the spacewalk, Wilmore, with his fifth EVA, now has a total of 31 hours and 2 minutes of spacewalking, while Williams, with her ninth EVA, has logged 62 hours and 6 minutes. Williams broke the record for the most time spent in spacewalks by a woman, surpassing the previous record set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2017.
Thursday’s spacewalk was the 274th EVA conducted in support of the assembly, maintenance, and upgrade of the International Space Station since 1998.
