Astronaut Peggy Whitson is no stranger to crack roadblock : In gain to becoming thefirst woman commanderof the International Space Station ( ISS ) , the Iowa indigen has log 377 days in spacebetween two foreign mission — the most of any American spacewoman to date . Now , on her third mission aboard the ISS , Whitson is racking up even more impressive feats — today , she performed hereighth spacewalk , setting the platter for most spacewalks performed by a woman .
The purpose of the spacewalk was to line up a docking port , which will essentially be a parking place for SpaceX and Boeing commercial gang capsules , theAP reports . At around 8 am EST , Whitson and ISS commander Shane Kimbrough began their preparations , while the relief of the bunch just sort of chilled .
“ You guys be safe and love your time out , ” French astronaut Thomas Pesquetsaidinside the ISS .
The previous female record bearer for spacewalks , Sunita “ Suni ” L. Williams , log 50 hours and 40 minutes in spacewalking clock time . Whitson ’s spacewalk today will last aboutsix and a one-half time of day , not only push her past Williams ’ record for most time logged , but making her the third most experienced spacewalker of all sentence , only behindAnatoly Solovyev ( 68 hours ) and former astronaut Mike Lopez - Alegria ( 67 hour ) . After today , Whitson will have accumulated 59 hours in spacewalking , but hey , that could farm — she wo n’t be back on Earth untilsometime in the fall .
All of us Earthlings could n’t be prouder of Whitson . Here ’s to all the records she has yet to break .
NASAScienceSpacespacewalk
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