Woman Space Record

U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, of Indian-American origin, has now spent more time walking in space than any other woman. She set the record as she and a crewmate upgraded the international space station’s cooling system. Ms. Williams broke the previous women’s spacewalking hours on Sunday when she and Michael Lopez-Alegria completed the second of what could be a precedent-setting three spacewalks in nine days. 

The new record of 22 hours and 27 minutes includes her two most recent walks, as well as a spacewalk in December. During Sunday’s spacewalk, which lasted more than seven hours, small amounts of toxic ammonia leaked from a fluid line. The liquid ammonia, which freezes into flakes when it hits the vacuum of space, did not appear to touch either astronaut. 

Mission Control told them to continue their task of hooking up ammonia fluid lines from a temporary cooling system to a permanent one. Ammonia could cause respiratory problems for the three-person crew if enough of it got into the space station. Once they were back in the space station’s airlock, Mission Control made the astronauts test for contamination. The test was negative. “They look like pinpoints”, Mr. Lopez-Alegria said of the flakes Sunday.