Starliner astronauts retrieve failed component in challenging spacewalk

Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore took a stroll outside the International Space Station on Thursday, marking their 239th day in orbit by carrying out a task originally planned for a spacewalk last summer. In the process, Williams became the world's most experienced female spacewalker, logging more than 62 hours outside the lab over nine excursions across multiple missions.

Her latest outing began at 7:43 a.m. EST when she and Wilmore switched their spacesuits to battery power and headed out to retrieve a faulty S-band antenna assembly mounted on an external storage platform. Two earlier attempts to retrieve the unit were unsuccessful.

The device wasn't designed for spacewalk retrieval and it took Williams and Wilmore longer than had been planned to get the job done. But thanks to improvisation and muscle power, the third time was the charm.

"The team has just been incredible," Williams radioed from the Quest airlock when the five-hour 26-minute EVA came to an end. "I know we were not the first, we weren't even the second crew to do this, but somehow, with all of their great work, we were able to get it done."

Added Wilmore: "This is probably the most involved spacewalk that probably every discipline in the ISS program was sweating as much as Suni and I were. Fantastic job, coming up with the next plan, and the next plan, and the next plan. And it worked! So, outstanding."

After the antenna retrieval, Wilmore collected swabs from nearby vents to help researchers determine if any microbial life from inside the station had managed to make it outside and survive in the space environment. A third task, prepping a spare robot arm joint for possible use if arm repairs are ever needed, was deferred to a future spacewalk.

Going into Thursday's spacewalk, or EVA, Williams had logged 56 hours and 40 minutes outside the station during eight previous outings while Wilmore had chalked up 25 hours and 35 minutes of EVA time during four excursions.

With her latest spacewalk, Williams moved past retired astronaut Peggy Whitson's mark of 60 hours and 21 minutes of spacewalk time to become the world's most experienced female spacewalker, moving up to number four overall.

Stuck aboard the station since last June because of NASA concerns about the safety of their Starliner capsule, Williams and Wilmore are now planning to return to Earth around the end of March aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship that carried two other station fliers — Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov — to the lab last September.

That Crew Dragon was launched with two empty seats specifically to carry Williams and Wilmore back to Earth at the end of the Crew 9 mission, originally planned for late February. But an extra month was tacked on later to give SpaceX more time to complete pre-flight checks of the Crew 10 Dragon, which will be making its maiden flight.

President Trump earlier this week blamed their long stay in space on the Biden administration and said that he'd asked SpaceX owner Elon Musk to bring Williams and Wilmore back home as soon as possible.

But the astronauts are not stranded. Their ride home has been docked to the station since last September and could bring them back to Earth in short order if NASA so ordered.

But that would cause major disruptions to U.S. research aboard the lab because only a single NASA astronaut — Don Pettit — would remain aboard the station with two Russian crewmates until the Crew 10 fliers arrive around the end of March.

Commercial plane crashes midair with military helicopter near Reagan National Airport

Trump offering "deferred resignation" to government workers unwilling to return to office

Officials provide update on midair collision near Reagan National Airport outside D.C.