Boeing Starliner Astronaut Takes Spacewalk After 7 Months in Orbit

NASA Boeing Starliner astronaut Suni Williams ISS spacewalk

NASA astronaut and Boeing Starliner pilot Suni Williams conducts a spacewalk to replace a reflective device that helps visiting spacecraft navigate to the International Space Station. [Courtesy: NASA]

Remember those two astronauts who hitched a ride to the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing’s Starliner in June? Well, they’re still up there and are expected to remain until March, according to NASA. But one of them finally emerged from the orbital laboratory for the first time in months.

On Thursday, Starliner pilot Suni Williams and NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, took a six-hour spacewalk to perform maintenance on the space station, marking the first time Williams has exited since arriving.

Williams and Hague replaced the ISS’s rate gyro assembly, which helps keep the station upright in orbit. They also patched up damaged light filters on the station’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray telescope and replaced a docking reflector used by international spacecraft to map out their final approach.

The spacewalk, the first of 2025, was Williams’ eighth and Hague’s fourth.

Williams and Starliner crewmate Butch Wilmore have been stuck on the ISS since June after Boeing uncovered a litany of issues with the spacecraft. Their expected eight-day stay—part of Starliner’s inaugural crew flight test—has now stretched nearly eight months. The capsule returned to Earth uncrewed in September, and the astronauts will instead ride home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon, which lifted off with two empty seats.

Williams and Wilmore are scheduled for a spacewalk together on January 30 to collect swabs of microbial life sitting on the ISS exterior. The astronauts will also replace a radio frequency antenna and furbish a small component for the space station’s robotic arm.

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Jack DaleoAuthor

Jack is a staff writer covering advanced air mobility, including everything from drones to unmanned aircraft systems to space travel—and a whole lot more. He spent close to two years reporting on drone delivery for FreightWaves, covering the biggest news and developments in the space and connecting with industry executives and experts. Jack is also a basketball aficionado, a frequent traveler and a lover of all things logistics.