America’s oldest female astronaut sets a record for most spacewalks by a woman

Astronaut Peggy Whitson has, to put it mildly, earned her share of records.

Whitson, who at 57 is NASA’s oldest female astronaut, has served as the International Space Station’s first female commander, logged more than a year of her life in orbit during her 19-year-long career and spent dozens of hours walking in space.

On Thursday, NASA announced she had set yet another record during her third tour of duty on the International Space Station — taking the most spacewalks by a female astronaut.

Whitson had previously been tied for the record with NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, at seven spacewalks each. But just before 7:30 a.m. Eastern time Thursday, Whitson logged the start of her eighth, record-setting spacewalk with expedition commander and fellow flight engineer Shane Kimbrough to reconnect cables on a portion of one of the space station’s modules.

NASA, which began livestreaming the spacewalk Thursday morning, said the spacewalk was the 199th to update and maintain the orbiting research laboratory, which has been in space since its first part was launched in 1998.

The spacewalk, which was scheduled to last about six and a half hours, also included installing computer relay boxes on some of the station’s shields and covers and updating electrical connections on the station’s exterior. Whitson and Kimbrough had cameras strapped to their helmets to document their work on the livestream as the space station drifted over South Africa, then India. According to NASA, the station hurtles through orbit at 17,150 miles an hour — seeing a sun rise and set about every 90 minutes.

Whitson undertook her first space mission in 2002 and most recently launched into space in November last year, according to NPR. Nor is Thursday’s record the last Whitson is expected to set, according to NASA. The astronaut will serve as commander for Expedition 51 to the International Space Station next month, making her not only the first female astronaut to command a mission to the station but also the first to do so twice.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 8:47 AM with the headline "America’s oldest female astronaut sets a record for most spacewalks by a woman."