NASA’s stuck astronauts take first joint spacewalk

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NASA’s stuck astronauts take first joint spacewalk

NASA’s two stuck astronauts have taken their first spacewalk together, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in.

Commander Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore floated out to perform maintenance work and wipe the station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents.

“Here we go,” Wilmore said as he emerged 420 kilometres above Spain on Thursday.

The pair expected to stay just a week when they arrived at the space station last June. But 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.

Williams performed a spacewalk two weeks ago with another NASA astronaut. It marked Wilmore’s first time outside this trip. Both racked up spacewalks during previous space station stays.

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