This 56-year-old woman walked in space for 6.5 hours, set several records

NEW DELHI:

Peggy Whitson

is an astronaut who keeps on breaking records.

When she completed a

spacewalk

for NASA today, Whitson, who is 56, became the oldest woman to perform one, reported culturess.com. That's no mean feat because the spacewalk was six-and-a-half hours long.

When she took off for the

International Space Station

in November, Whitson became the oldest woman to travel to space - ever.

When she finishes her current mission, called Expedition 50/51, Whitson will hold the record for the most time spent in space - 377 days - by any American astronaut. This was her seventh spacewalk

And more records will tumble when she commands the next scheduled spacewalk, Expedition 51, reported Mashable.





On her current mission, Whitson will spend six months in space - in fact, she will turn 57 up there next month. The purpose of the mission is a power upgrade on the International Space Station.




Today's was first of two power upgrade spacewalks. During the six-hour-and-thirty-two-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts successfully installed three new adapter plates and hooked up electrical connections for three of the six new lithium-ion batteries on the International Space Station, NASA scientists wrote in a blog post.

Earlier this week, Whitson told the Associated Press that she loves being in space.

"I sleep like a baby. I mean, it is amazing the great sleep. Nothing hurts when you're lying in bed. You can sleep the whole night through. It's great."

Watch the spacewalk below