Female astronaut the most spaced-out ever!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 05 February 2007 16:12

Science - Space

While Michael Jackson is still the world’s most famous ‘Moonwalker’, US Astronaut Sunita Williams is the world’s longest female spacewalker – giving Luke Skywalker a run for his money.

Yes, China may well have recently launched a missile capable of destroying satellites, destroying one of their own older models, setting off an out-of-this world space race for ‘Star Wars’ supremacy between the space faring superpowers, the real star this week is Sunita Williams, a female astronaut who has spent more time in space than any other woman.

According to the Associated Press, Williams has now spent 22 hours and 27 minutes in space, busting the previous 21 hour record, as she and a fellow astronaut worked on the space station's cooling system.

To add to the excitement, AP also reported news of a potential liquid ammonia leak, in which the liquid leaked from a fluid line and turned into ammonia flakes when subjected to the vacuum of space.

Upon return to the space station, tests for contamination were carried out, but they came back negative, with fears that if enough ammonia had entered the space station it could cause problems for the astronauts within.

According to AP, one more spacewalk is set for this Thursday, with a fourth set for Feb 22 with Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin. However AP made no mention of the fact that namesake Michael Jackson will not be moonwalking by, nor will Luke Skywalker be floating by, trapped as he is in science fiction stories set a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.