Stranded astronaut Suni Williams performs spacewalk at ISS

Jan. 16 (UPI) -- NASA astronaut Sunni Williams, one-half Boeing Starliner crew who have been stuck on the International Space Station for months, took part in a spacewalk on Thursday to do some repairs to the orbiting laboratory.

Williams joined astronaut Nick Hague in the spacewalk to remove and replace a rate gyro assembly that helps provide orientation control for the ISS, install patches to cover damaged ares of light filters for an X-ray telescope and replace a reflector device used for navigational data on one of the international docking adapters.

Williams has been on the ISS with astronaut Butch Wilmore after arriving in Boeing's new Starliner spaceship several months ago. A problem with the spacecraft's thrusters left NASA little choice but to send the Starliner back to Earth unmanned, leaving Williams and Wilmore at the space station.

Both are scheduled to return next month. They will return with Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexandr Gorbunov.

Williams and Wilmore are both space veterans, members of previous trips to the International Space Station. Thursday's spacewalk was the eighth of her career.