NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are out for the first all-female spacewalk on Thursday, NASA officials announced. Initially, the historical first all-female spacewalk from International Space Station was scheduled for October 21 but it has now been rescheduled. This venture is a part of a series of excursions to install new batteries. It is now pre-poned due to the failure of one of the orbiting lab's power controllers over the weekend, NASA officials announced.
It will be the first walk in space by only women in more than a half-century of spacewalking. Till now only male or mixed teams had conducted spacewalk since the space station was assembled in 1998. A total of 214 spacewalks until now have been made.
“@Space_Station update: our first all-female spacewalk with @Astro_Christina and @Astro_Jessica will be Thursday or Friday to replace a faulty battery charge-discharge unit,” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said on Twitter. He also added that further details will be released soon.
The first-all female spacewalk by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, which is to take place at the International Space Station, is on a mission to make history.
Earlier, in March, an attempt for an all-female spacewalk with Koch and another astronaut Ann McClain failed because of spacesuit size issues. The second chance for NASA to create the history is also the fourth of the five of its excursions to install new sets of solar array batteries in International Space Station solar power system.
Only 15 women have spacewalked ever and all of them had a male companion. So Koch and Meir are about to make long-overdue history
Key Takeaways:
- NASA will conduct the first all-female spacewalk Thursday with the astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.
- Earlier, in March, an attempt for an all-female spacewalk failed because of spacesuit size issues.
- This will be the fourth of the five of its excursions to install new sets of solar array batteries in International Space Station solar power system.
- Only 15 women have spacewalked ever and all of them had a male companion. So Koch and Meir are about to make history
McClain, who came back to Earth in June, tweeted:
“Third spacewalk in a busy season of spacewalks this week. Date is unknown bc the task was unforeseen: replacing a unit that failed during power-ups of new batteries. Very good that we have 4 expert spacewalkers on board to shoulder this tough task. They are the A-team!” McClain said via Twitter today.
The first woman to perform a spacewalk was the Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, that was 35-years ago. Of the more than 500 people who have been into space, only 11% have been women, Reuters reported.
Also Read: First All-Female Spacewalks Weren’t Cancelled: Anne McClain, Astronaut
Along with Koch and Meir, four people are on the space station's current Expedition 61. They are NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan; Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka; and the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano, who commands the mission.
Also Read: 56 year Old Peggy Whitson To Be Oldest Woman In Space
Picture Credit: CNN World
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