The first all-female spacewalk

In October 2019, it happened for the first time in history that two flight engineers of NASA, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir embarked on the first all-female spacewalk mission named Expedition 61. During the spacewalk, the ground co-ordinator was Stephanie Wilson, also an astronaut. It was a 7 hour 17 minutes walk conducted to complete the replacement of the failed power charging component, also known as Battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU). This unit is required to charge the batteries that collect and distribute solar power to the orbiting lab’s systems. It was the first time when two females independently have done a spacewalk. Earlier, the other spacewalks were accomplished with men.

These two female astronauts embarked together on another spacewalk in January 2020. 

What is a spacewalk?

When an astronaut steps out of the vehicle while in space, this activity is called a spacewalk. It is also known as EVA or Extravehicular Activity. In today’s time, astronauts go on spacewalks outside the International Space Station (ISS). Depending on the work, a spacewalk can last between 5-8 hours.

How many women did the spacewalk till now?

Along with Svetlana Savitskaya, 14 US women conducted 40 spacewalks over the past 35 years, Koch and Meir were 14th and 15th, respectively.