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| Sunita Williams sets women's spacewalking record | | | HOUSTON, FEB 5
Indian-American astronaut Sunita 'Suni' Williams added another feather to her cap by spending more time spacewalking than any other woman to date.
Sunita reached the record of spending more than 21 hours in space yesterday when she along with International Space Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria spacewalked for over seven hours.
The new record of 22 hours and 27 minutes includes her two most recent walks, as well as a spacewalk in December.
This was the third spacewalk for Sunita, who now holds the record for most spacewalking time by a female.
Former astronaut Kathy Thornton previously held that honor.
For Lopez-Algiers, it was the eighth spacewalk. He surpassed astronaut Steve Smith to vault into third place on the all-time spacewalking list for most hours spent outside. Yesterday's spacewalk was the 79th for station assembly and maintenance and the 51st done without a shuttle present.
Sunita and Lopez-Alegria yesterday returned inside the outpost's Quest airlock and shut the outer hatch, settling down to enjoy the spectacular Super Bowl football game between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts.
Today, Lopez-Alegria and Sunita will recharge batteries and prepare their spacesuits and tools for the next spacewalk set for Thursday morning.
This walk will be the most attempted in so short a period of time by any space station astronauts without the crew of a shuttle also present to assist them. |
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