Finally, NASA was able to pull off an all-female spacewalk. Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch stepped outside the International Space Station together Friday morning to fix a power problem. Koch recently commented on her time at the ISS saying, “Pretty lucky to be living inside an engineering marvel.” Now the luck continues as she and her colleague suited up and headed in the history books today. Meir tweeted pictures of a trial run in the spacesuit earlier this week.
Gearing up for Friday’s spacewalk to help the ground teams repair one of the battery channels with @Astro_Christina.
. . . first spacesuit selfie, check!✔️
Photos will be much more spectacular once we pass through the hatch. Be sure to watch live: https://t.co/8ggAQFbzAh pic.twitter.com/oXUDnDvLLY
— Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) October 16, 2019
Such a walk was supposed to take place in March, but it was postponed because NASA did not have two appropriately sized spacesuits available. That sparked an outcry — and a “Saturday Night Live” spoof — about the legacy of sexism in the space program.
More recently, Ms. Meir and Ms. Koch had planned to install lithium-ion batteries on Oct. 21, but the timeline was hastened after a power controller failed last weekend.
Watch the live stream here.
LIVE NOW: Tune in to watch the first #AllWomanSpacewalk in human history! ???
Starting at approximately 7:50am ET, @Astro_Christina & @Astro_Jessica venture into the vacuum of space to replace a failed power controller. Watch: https://t.co/2SIb9YXlRh
— NASA (@NASA) October 18, 2019
