In this image made from video provided by NASA, U.S. astronauts Peggy Whitson, above, and Shane Kimbrough work on the outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, March 30, 2017. An important piece of micrometeorite shielding was lost during the spacewalk. (NASA via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Spacewalking astronauts carried out an impromptu patch job outside the International Space Station on Thursday, after losing a vital piece of cloth shielding when it floated away. As the drama unfolded, Peggy Whitson set a record for the most spacewalks by a woman — eight — and the most accumulated time spent spacewalking — just over 53 hours. To round out the spacewalk, Kimbrough and Whitson also installed a different shield around the base of the PMA-3 adapter for micrometeoroid protection. The shields were required to cover the port where the PMA-3 was removed earlier in the week and robotically installed on the Harmony module. The cover is made of the same material as the shielding, according to Mission Control, and just as capable of protecting against potential strikes by bits of space debris and providing thermal control. “Teams are focused on completing the (spacewalk) and will review the events as they unfolded after it is completed,” NASA spokesman Dan Huot wrote in an email. The last such occasion was in 2008 when an astronaut lost hold of her tool bag while struggling with a jammed solar panel. Spacewalkers occasionally lose small items like nuts and screws, but rarely do large objects slip away. No other details were immediately available about how the shield, which weighs 18 pounds (8 kg) and measures 63.6-by-23.4- by-2.6 inches (162-by-59-by-7 cm), was lost. The lost debris shield will eventually be pulled back into Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. PMA-3 will provide the pressurized interface between the station and the second of two international docking adapters to be delivered to the complex to support the dockings of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft in the future. At the time, Whitson, 57, and station commander Shane Kimbrough, 49, were about midway through a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk to prepare a docking port for upcoming commercial space taxis and to tackle other maintenance tasks. Midway through the seven-hour excursion, Whitson surpassed the record for women of 50 hours and 40 minutes of total accumulated spacewalking time, held by former station resident Sunita Williams. For more information about the International Space Station, visit www.nasa.gov/station.
– In space, nobody can hear you scream, "Oh no, there goes the shielding"—apart from Mission Control. American astronauts Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough suffered a frustrating setback during a spacewalk Thursday when one of the four fabric shields they were installing on the exterior of the International Space Station drifted off into space, Reuters reports. But Mission Control came up with what the AP calls a "MacGyver-like plan for a patch" and directed the astronauts to use the cover from a relocated docking port to cover the vulnerable area. "You guys came up with a fantastic plan—on short notice. That's amazing," Whitson said. It's not clear why the shield, which was supposed to be tethered, ended up floating away. The lost debris shield is now an 18-pound piece of space debris itself—and at 5 feet across, it's one of the bigger objects lost by spacewalkers. "Sometimes bolts will go," NASA spokesman Dan Huot tells the Washington Post. "There was one spacewalk where we lost an entire bag of tools." He says Mission Control determined that the floating shield, which will eventually burn up in Earth's atmosphere, was no threat to the ISS. NASA says the seven-hour spacewalk was otherwise a success. Whitson, 57, was on her eighth spacewalk. Halfway through the mission, she broke the 50-hour, 40-minute record for accumulated time spacewalking by a female astronaut. (This summer, the coldest spot in space will be on the ISS.)