On Oct 18, 2019, Astronauts Christina Koch (on the right in this photograph) and Jessica Meir (left) completed NASA’s first all-woman spacewalk- making a major milestone for NASA. The duo has made history by completing the first-ever all-female spacewalk.
The astronauts have spent 7 hours, 17-minute outside the International Space Station (ISS), replacing a failed power control unit, also known as a battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU). What’s more, they were also able to accomplish some get-ahead tasks, including installation of a stanchion on the Columbus module for support of a new external ESA (European Space Agency) payload platform called Bartolomeo scheduled for launch to the station in 2020.
It was the first spacewalk for Meir and the fourth for Koch. Prior to this, Koch has spent a total of 27 hours and 48 minutes of spacewalking.
Meir became the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. Koch arrived at the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.
The astronauts will participate in a news conference from orbit at noon EDT, Monday, Oct. 21, following their Friday spacewalk – the first to be conducted by two women. The news conference will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.