NASA Astronaut Conducts First Spacewalk After 7 Months Aboard ISS

On January 16, 2024, NASA astronaut Suni Williams conducted her first spacewalk after spending seven months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Williams, the station's commander, and fellow astronaut Nick Hague, emerged from the ISS while it was orbiting 260 miles above Turkmenistan. The spacewalk was the first by NASA astronauts since an aborted one last summer, following a water leak in an astronaut's suit. Williams and Hague worked on repairs to the NICER telescope, which studies neutron stars and other cosmic phenomena. This was Williams' eighth spacewalk and she has lived on the space station before. Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore were initially scheduled for a week-long test flight but have been stranded on the ISS since June 2023 due to malfunctions with the Boeing capsule that was supposed to bring them home. They are expected to return to Earth in late March or early April.