An amateur photographer on Earth has captured an extremely rare photo of “stranded” NASA astronaut Suni Williams floating outside the International Space Station (ISS) as it passed overhead. The image was taken during a recent spacewalk, when Williams broke the record for most non-consective hours spent spacewalking by a female astronaut.
Charline Giroud, a biochemist at the University of Oxford in England and astrophotography enthusiast, snapped the striking photo Jan. 30 using a small telescope as the ISS passed over Oxfordshire at an altitude of around 250 miles (410 kilometers). The shoot required extreme precision as the space station was traveling at around 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h).
“I was very lucky to capture this event under clear skies with my telescope from my hometown, it was a fantastic moment,” Giroud told Spaceweather.com.
At the time, ISS commander Sunita “Suni” Williams was undertaking her fifth career spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), to help remove a defunct part of the station. Following this excursion, Williams has now accumulated a total of 62 hours and 6 minutes floating in the vacuum of space, overtaking retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson to become the female astronaut with the most non-consecutive hours spent spacewalking, according to Live Science’s sister site Space.com. (Whitson still holds the record for most individual spacewalks by a female astronaut with six EVAs.)
In the photo, Williams is visible as a tiny white blob attached to the end of the robotic arm, named Canadarm-2, which looks like a golden line near the station’s center (see below).
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In addition to breaking the impressive EVA record, Williams is “also the first female astronaut to be photographed from the ground during a spacewalk,” Giroud said. “Congratulations Suni!”
NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore, who has been stuck on the ISS alongside Williams for seven months, was also on the spacewalk, which lasted 5 hours and 26 minutes. However, he was working in the shadow of an airlock as the space station passed over the U.K. and is therefore invisible in the photo, Giroud said.
Stranded in space
Williams and Wilmore have been on board the ISS since June 6, 2024. They were initially scheduled to stay in space for around a week. However, they became stranded when the Boeing Starliner capsule that delivered them to the station experienced multiple leaks, temporarily forcing it out of commission. The astronaut pair could now spend a total of more than 300 days orbiting Earth.
The faulty Starliner capsule was eventually returned to Earth in September and successfully touched down in New Mexico upon reentry, leading to speculation that the astronauts may have been able to safely travel onboard the spacecraft. However, the risks to their safety were deemed too great at the time.
The astronaut pair has since had their return date pushed back several times due to logistical challenges — most recently in December, when their February return date was pushed back to some point in late March.
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Since taking office, U.S. president Donald Trump has made it a priority to return Williams and Wilmore to Earth and has “ordered” Elon Musk to return the pair on a SpaceX capsule before the proposed March return date, Space.com recently reported. However, it is currently unclear how or if this will happen.
The renewed urgency of their return may have been fueled by recent tabloid rumours that Williams’ health has deteriorated significantly during her stay on the ISS. However, these unfounded stories were refuted by Williams, who has only experienced minor health effects that are expected of astronauts that experience long stays in space — and is clearly still fit enough to set spacewalking records.
This is also not the first time that NASA astronauts have endured extended missions in space. In 2023, NASA’s Frank Rubio completed a 371-day stay in space — a record for an American astronaut — after the Russian Soyuz capsule he was traveling in was damaged by a piece of renegade space junk.
