U.S. astronaut breaks female record for most spacewalks

U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the record for the most spacewalks by a woman on Thursday as she and another astronaut floated outside the International Space Station to do preparation work for future installation of a new docking port.

It was Whitson's eighth spacewalk, making her surpass the previous the record of seven set by another U.S. astronaut Suni Williams.

During Thursday's spacewalk, Whitson and her fellow astronaut Shane Kimbrough will connect cables at a structure called Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3), which was just recently robotically relocated from the station's Tranquility module to the Harmony module.

The duo will also "install the second of the two upgraded computer relay boxes on the station's truss and install shields and covers on PMA-3 and the now-vacant common berthing mechanism port on Tranquility," NASA said.

Thursday's spacewalk, expected to last about six and a half hours, was the second in a series of three spacewalks to prepare the station for future installation of a new docking port called International Docking Adapter (IDA), which will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings.

The space station already has one IDA, and the second will be delivered on a future SpaceX Dragon cargo mission.

The first of three spacewalks was performed one week ago, while the third and final one is slated for April 6. Enditem