Space to Ground: Suni Sets A New Record: Jan. 31, 2025

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

What is said in the film

Welcome to Space to Ground, I'm Chelsea Ballarte. On Thursday, our NASA astronauts were on the hunt for bugs. Not the creepy crawly kinds, but the microscopic, microbial life on the outside of the International Space Station. Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore put their space suits on and exited the space station for a space walk to swab the outside and collect samples. Wherever there are humans, there are microbes.

Bacteria and fungi live all around us, in our homes, offices, the outdoors, even in space. During the spacewalk Williams and Wilmore took samples around the life support system vents on the outside of the space station so researchers can see just how many organisms they might find, and how far they travel. While many of the tiny organisms are beneficial, we need to limit any potentially harmful ones. So from the launch of the very first module of the space station, NASA has monitored its microbial community . The data collected during the spacewalk could help researchers learn more about how these microorganisms survive and reproduce in the harsh environment of space, if they do at all.

This is the second spacewalk for Suni Williams this year. Earlier this month she ventured out with NASA astronaut Nick Hague. Williams now has the most cumulative space walking time of any female astronaut, surpassing former astronaut Peggy Whitson's record. QUESTION: "Can you describe the feeling when you leave the spacecraft? " SUNI WILLIAMS: "Well you know we train a lot for these spacewalks and there's a lot of people who are invested in it because it's very, you know, expensive equipment outside and if we go outside we're risking everybody's life, you know, these two people's lives to go out there and do that in their own specific spacecraft their space suits, right?

A six-hour spacewalk, I think you run through the gamut of every emotion a human can have. You know you're hot, you're cold, you're crushing it, you're doing everything right, and then something that you didn't expect goes wrong and then you're beating yourself up because that didn't go right. I've noticed that each time that I've come back in it felt like I was skiing the whole day, you know like that after ski feeling when you get done, and you just sort of like... whew! " Do you know some students who would love to call up our astronauts in space and chat with them?

Applications are now open for amateur radio enthusiasts to make contact with the space station. This 10-minute conversation let student do a question and answer session with the astronauts, so get your proposals in and check the website for more. That's it for Space to Ground. Thanks for watching. SUNI WILLIAMS: "My mom, my mom sort of said like, it took me a little while to get out the airlock cuz I was gathering some equipment.

She goes; "Did you get stuck in there? " and I'm like, no I didn't get stuck in there. I was making sure I had all my stuff together to get ready to go. It's important work, Mom. "

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