NASA's Peggy Whitson Just Set a New Spacewalk Record
By Maggie Mallon. Photos: Getty Images.
Setting a new record, veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson made her eighth spacewalk on Thursday—the most ever performed by a woman.
According to the Associated Press, the goal of Whitson's walk was to complete some fine-tuning on a docking port outside of the International Space Station. (For reference: NASA defines a spacewalk as any time an astronaut ventures outside of a spacecraft.) Joined by station commander Shane Kimbrough, the two astronauts made final adjustments to what is essentially a parking spot for commercial crew capsules produced by Space X and Boeing.
As Whitson and Kimbrough ventured out into the vastness to complete their fix-it mission, their fellow crew members remaining in the ISS offered some words of encouragement:
“You guys be safe and enjoy your time out,” French astronaut Thomas Pesquet told them via radio.
Whitson has been in orbit since November of 2016. She is currently on her third visit to the ISS and has spent over 500 days in space—yet another record for an American spacewoman. She is scheduled to return to Earth in June, but is currently looking to extend her space stay until September, should the U.S. secure an extra seat on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz, scheduled to return to the planet that same month.
This story originally appeared on Glamour.
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