Astronauts complete 7-hour spacewalk to set up new parking spot on ISS

Two astronauts are back inside the International Space Station following a spacewalk that took anunintended turn when a piece of equipment got away.

The cloth bundle floated away Thursday midway through aspacewalkby PeggyWhitsonand Shane Kimbrough. Mission Control quickly came up with a plan foran impromptu patch job, which worked, and NASA said there was no risk of ithitting the orbiting complex.

Whitson and Kimbroughspent seven hours setting up a new parking spot on the ISS.

NASA astronauts lose piece of debris shield during spacewalk

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1.5-metre piece floats away during installation on space station

Whitson, meanwhile,set a new spacewalking record for women.

Shesurpassed the 50-hour, 40-minute mark of accumulatedspacewalking time, previously set by former station resident SunitaWilliams. This wasthe eighth spacewalk of Whitson's career, morethan any other woman. At age 57, Whitson is the oldest spacewomanever and also the most experienced.

"You guys be safe and enjoy your time out," French astronautThomasPesquetradioed from inside the space station asWhitsonandKimbroughventured out to workon the Harmony module's space-facing docking port, which will getthe station ready for equipment set to be delivered ona futureSpaceXDragon cargo mission.

The port was disconnected last week, then moved to a new location on the station, where theastronauts connected cables and performed other crucial modifications. Itwill serve as one of two parking spotsfor commercial crew capsules under development by SpaceX and Boeing.The first flight could occur as early as next year.

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More than 500 days in space

Whitson has been in orbit since November. This isher third space station stint. Altogether, she's spent more than 500 days off the planet, also more than any other woman.

She's scheduled to return to Earth in June, but may stick aroundan extra three months, until September. NASA is hoping to takeadvantage of an extra seat in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that'sdue to launch next month and return in September. A decision isexpected soon.