Watch NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson Break Spacewalk Records

Peggy Whitson is the oldest woman in space. Now, she’s also the oldest woman to perform a spacewalk. You can watch her live until 2:00 pm ET.

The first spacewalk of 2017 will already showcase a major first. Peggy Whitson is already the oldest female astronaut, at 56. Now, she’ll be the oldest female astronaut to complete a spacewalk. If your initial reaction is to laugh, may I remind you that this particular spacewalk will last about 6.5 hours?

Whitson’s age is only a small facet of her incredibly accomplished career. She has a PhD in Biochemistry from Rice University. For a large portion of her career, she was a research biochemist for NASA, based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Whitson was selected for astronaut training in 1996.

She went on her first spaceflight in 2002 as part of the Expedition 5 crew, aboard STS-111. Whitson has also previously served as NASA Chief Astronaut, the most senior position for active astronauts and head of the NASA Astronaut Corps. In 2008, she became the first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS).

Previously, members of Expedition 5 spent six months aboard the ISS. On that mission, she logged over 184 days in space. Her second trip, as part of Expedition 16, earned her another 191 days in space. All told, she has accumulated over 377 days in outer space, and has completed six spacewalks, totaling 39 hours and 46 minutes.

After her current mission, Expedition 50/51, Whitson will hold the record for most time spent in space of any U.S. astronaut. She will also be the commander of the upcoming Expedition 51. This spacewalk will be the seventh of Whitson’s career.

Along with fellow U.S. astronaut Shane Kimbrough, Whitson will stow and replace power supplies near the station’s starboard solar arrays. This is actually the first of two spacewalks that will focus on battery upgrades for the ISS. The second will take place on January 13 and will include Kimbrough and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

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The spacewalk started today at 7:00 am ET. NASA will be airing live footage of the walk until 2:00 pm ET, which you can watch here.