Two NASA astronauts wandered beyond the confines of the International Space Station Friday morning and are making history as the first ever-pair to embark on an all female spacewalk.
The mission officially began when the batteries in the spacesuits were activated at 7:38 a.m. and is slated to last between five and six hours.
Astronauts Christina Koch, who has been aboard the space station for more than 200 days now, and Jessica Meir, who arrived in September, were originally slated to venture out into space on Oct. 21 to install new lithium-ion batteries for the solar power system — but the recent failure of a power controller forced them to act sooner.
The device, which has been in operation for 19 years, regulates batteries distributing power to the station and will now have to be replaced by Koch and Meir. The malfunction has resulted in power loss at one of the eight channels used to provide energy to the space station but has had no impact on crew safety.
“It’s manageable, but again, not something that we would want to live with in the long term,” Kenny Todd, the operations integration manager for the International Space Station told the Verge.
Koch, an electrical engineer on track to break the record for longest single spaceflight completed by a woman, was supposed to participate in the first-ever, all female spacewalk earlier this year with decorated astronaut Anne McClain. Just days before the March mission though, NASA announced it would have to scrap the plan because it did not have a medium-sized spacesuit readily available for both women.
McClain, without a properly fitting suit, was ultimately replaced by a male colleague, prompting frustrated critics to point out how NASA failed to properly accommodate is female crew.
McClain returned to Earth in June after completing two spacewalks and spending 204 days in orbit. Upon her arrival, the astronaut grabbed national headlines after she was accused of gaining access to her estranged wife’s bank account from space. She has denied all wrongdoing
Both Koch and Meir recently spoke about women working in spaceflight during a recent news conference.
“I think it’s important because of the historical nature of what we’re doing and that in the past, women haven’t always been at the table,” Koch said.
“It’s wonderful to be contributing to human spaceflight at a time when all contributions are being accepted, when everyone has a role and that can lead, in turn, to increased chance for success.”
Meir echoed the sentiment.
“What we’re doing now shows all the work that went in the decades prior, all of the women that worked to get us where we are today,” she added. “I think it’s the nice thing for us is we don’t even really think about it on a daily basis, it’s just normal. We’re part of the team, we’re doing this work as an efficient team working together with everybody else, so it’s really nice to see how far that we’ve come.”
Since the world’s first spacewalk in 1965, only 14 women have participated in one compared to the 213 men who have done them, according to NASA.
The first all-female mission is one of 10 spacewalks scheduled over the next three months.
