Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are conducting a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to remove degraded hardware and swab for microorganisms.

NASA’s two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in. Commander Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore removed a broken antenna and wiped the station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore completed a spacewalk Thursday while awaiting their delayed return to Earth. Williams set a new spacewalking record for female astronauts during the mission.

President Donald Trump took to social media this week to announce he had directed SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to “go get” two NASA astronauts who have been on a protracted stay at the International Space Station after their Boeing Starliner mission, which launched in June and was expected to last about eight days, ran into multiple technical issues.

Despite a recent request from Trump, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were already scheduled to return to Earth on a Crew Dragon capsule this spring