NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson now holds the world record for the most spacewalking time ever accumulated by a woman.
At 8:27 a.m. EST, Whitson eclipsed the previous benchmark -- 29 hours and 17 minutes -- set by fellow NASA astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams earlier this year.
"You are the queen of EVA. You are the world record holder," astronaut Tom Marshburn said from Mission Control.
"Thank you. It's just being in the right place at the right time," Whitson said.
"That's exactly what Suni said," Marshburn replied.
Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, is stepping through her fifth spacewalk. She and outpost flight engineer Dan Tani are inspecting a damaged solar wing rotary joint.
Working around the circumference of the 10-foot-diameter mechanism, Whitson and Tani now are reporting that the surface and bearings beneath thermal covers are clean and relatively free of debris.
"Okay. That's highly significant," Marshburn said.
The level of contamination under thermal covers removed earlier was much higher -- an indication that could help engineers pinpoint the source of the debris. The spacewalkers hope to remove all 22 thermal covers that ring the joint in a bid to isolate the problem.
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