By BlueShift | 2025-01-20

Col. Nick Hague, the first active-duty US Space Force (USSF) Guardian to launch into space, wrapped up his first spacewalk in over a year on January 16, underscoring the military branch's commitment to supporting critical operations in orbit.

Hague and fellow NASA astronaut Suni Williams completed their primary objectives during their six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS), the space agency said in a statement.

Those objectives included servicing astrophysics hardware and replacing orientation and navigation components, NASA said in a blog post.

It added that the mission was the fourth spacewalk for Hague and the eighth for Williams, and it was the 273rd spacewalk aimed at supporting ISS assembly, maintenance and upgrades.

Hague is the commander of NASA's Crew-9 mission, which launched September 28 atop a SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

"Floating in the vacuum of space secured by a single tether, seeing Earth drift by 250 miles below your feet, feeling the sun's heat on your face as it rises, and taking in the sheer magnitude of the [ISS] -- a spacewalk is an experience for the senses," Hague posted January 18 on X.

The crew of NASA astronauts on the ISS are preparing for the next spacewalk scheduled for January 23.

"Spacewalks are a team effort. It takes the whole crew plus hundreds on the ground, all moving to the orchestration of our Flight Director," Hague said January 14 on X.

"The preparation begins years before. By the time it’s all done, I will have had 10 hours of training in the NBL for every hour doing a spacewalk," he said, referring to NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory located near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

At 61.5m long, 31.1m wide and 12.2m deep, the NBL is one of the world's largest indoor pools.

It is utilized for mission planning, procedure development, hardware verification, astronaut training and refinement of time-critical operations necessary to ensure mission success during spacewalks, according to NASA.

The USSF, established in 2019, is the newest branch of the US military. Its primary mission is to organize, train and equip space forces to ensure US dominance in the space domain, protect American interests and enhance global security.

The Crew-9 mission highlights the growing collaboration between NASA and the USSF to ensure the United States' capabilities in space, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said after the September launch.

"NASA and the Space Force have very different functions, but we share a common interest in the free and responsible use of the space domain," he said. "We also share an understanding of the importance of integrating with our allies and partners, joining Guardian values to civil space objectives for the collective good."