By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in.
Commander Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore floated out to remove a broken antenna and wipe the station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents.
They had trouble unbolting the balky antenna, which had thwarted previous spacewalkers. “It’s not budging,” Wilmore reported as the job dragged on 260 miles (420 kilometers) up.
Mission Control canceled all other chores so the two could focus on the antenna, NASA’s top priority.
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.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.