Sunita Williams, Indian-American NASA astronaut, and her Japanese colleague went outside their lab on the International Space Station on Thursday, seeking to perform maintenance tasks thousands of miles above the Earth's surface.

Williams and colleague, Akihiko Hoshide, who is a Japanese flight engineer, ventured outside to replace a faulty power-switching unity, as well as a robotic arm camera, which was failing.

It is the fifth spacewalk Williams has taken part in, but her walk today was the first performed by an American astronaut since the final space mission in July 2011, according to Florida Today.

Williams ventured onto the International Space Station along with Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko from Russia on July 15 via a Russian spacecraft called "Soyuz TMA-05M." They departed from Kazakhstan from the Baikonur cosmodrome.

American Williams is the commander of Expedition 33, having already taken part in Expedition 32, on which she was a flight engineer. She has also been a member of Expedition 14, as well as joining Expedition 15, and is one of the most experienced international astronauts.

Sunita Williams in fact holds the world record of the longest spaceflight for a female space traveler, having been on a spaceflight for a massive 195 days.