On Sunday, March 11, astronaut Susan Helms took one giant leap for women scientists. She stepped into space from the shuttle Discovery and stayed there for a record-breaking 8 hours and 56 minutes!

During history's longest space walk, she and fellow astronaut Jim Voss prepared the International Space Station for the Leonardo cargo module from Italy. It carried five tons of equipment! They also helped set up the ISS for the arrival next month of a giant robot arm. After the Discovery and ISS crews unloaded gear from Leonardo, they needed an extra day to repack the module with trash to send back to Earth.

Helms is the first woman to live onboard the ISS. She is scheduled to stay there for four months with Voss and Russian commander Yuri Usachev. "We are more like family than we are like a crew," Helms said. "We are just going to have the time of our lives."

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March 23, 2001 World Report