This is the eighth space walk of Suni Williams' career One of the two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station (ISS) has taken their first space walk since arriving at the station nearly seven months ago.

Pettit is now in the midst of his third stint on the International Space Station, and the decade he had to prepare for his current stay in orbit was put to good use. Accordingly, he is well stocked on cameras, lenses, and plans to make the most of six months in space to observe the planets and heavens from an incredible vantage point.

Dyson will speak at a free public lecture on Wednesday at UC Irvine. Between three missions, she has logged over one year of time living in space.

Suni Williams, the station's commander, had to tackle some overdue outdoor repair work alongside NASA's Nick Hague. Plans called for Williams to float back out next week with Butch Wilmore. Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule last June on what should have been a weeklong test flight.

At the time of writing, Williams and ISS crewmate, Nick Hague, are conducting NASA’s first spacewalk in over a year. The pair are scheduled to spend roughly 6.5 hours in the vacuum of space, where they will work on a number of long overdue external repairs and equipment assessments.

Needham native Suni Williams is stepping out of the International Space Station Thursday and stepping into space, embarking on her first spacewalk in 12 years.<a class="excerpt-read-more" href=" More