First all-female spacewalk recorded.
On Friday 18 October 2019 American astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history on Friday when they stepped outside the International Space Station (ISS) on the first all-female spacewalk.
The spacewalk was achieved during a relatively routine mission to swap faulty batteries on the ISS’s exterior.
Koch and Meir were tethered by cords to the station some 408 km above Earth, stepped into outer space to replace a faulty power unit designed to help condition energy stored from the station’s solar panels.
The mission, expected to last nearly five hours, follows a first attempt at an all-female spacewalk in March. It was called off because one of the astronaut’s medium-sized spacesuits was not configured and ready for the journey.
Forty-three of the 221 maintenance spacewalks have included women astronauts, since the ISS became operational in 2000.
Friday’s spacewalk conforms to NASA’s aim to improve inclusivity in space.
Koch is scheduled set to complete the longest single space flight by a woman by remaining in orbit aboard the station until February 2020. She said gender milestones such as the spacewalk are significant.
Sandra Magnus, a former NASA astronaut who spent 136 days on the ISS, told Reuters that she did not want events like Friday’s spacewalk to become gimmicks.
“We want them to happen because people have the skill sets and they’re available to do the job,” said Magnus.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect about the two women is that they are both Jewish! May they make their mothers happy!