WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US 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 much-anticipated milestone for NASA was achieved during a relatively routine mission to swap faulty batteries on the station’s exterior.
Koch and Meir, clad in white spacesuits and tethered by cords to the station some 408km above Earth, stepped into outer space at 7.38am Eastern time to replace a faulty power unit designed to help condition energy stored from the station’s solar panels, NASA announced online as it showed live video of the action.
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.
US President Donald Trump congratulated the two women in a video call midday on Friday, thanking them for their bravery and service.
“This is truly historic,” he told the astronauts from a conference room at the White House alongside Vice President Mike Pence, his daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
“This is a first step,” Trump told the pair, noting that NASA was planning to send a woman to the moon as part of a 2022 mission to build a habitat there.
Astronauts on the space station, which became operational in 2000, have tallied 221 maintenance spacewalks, 43 of which included women astronauts, according to NASA.
Friday’s spacewalk, formally called extravehicular activities, is in line with the US space agency’s aim to ramp up 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. — NNN-AGENCIES
