posted 10-17-2019 10:46 PM               

ISS Expedition 61: U.S. Spacewalk 58

On the first ever all-female spacewalk, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will venture outside the International Space Station at about 7:50 a.m. EDT (1150 GMT) on Friday, Oct. 18, to replace faulty equipment on the station's exterior.

The astronauts will replace a faulty battery charge/discharge unit (BCDU) that failed to activate following the Oct. 11 installation of new lithium-ion batteries on the space station's exterior structure. The BCDUs regulate the amount of charge put into the batteries that collect energy from the station's solar arrays. Though the BCDU failure has not impacted station operations or crew safety, it does prevent the new batteries from providing increased station power.

Koch will be extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) wearing the spacesuit with the red stripes and Meir will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2) wearing the suit with no stripes. The spacewalk will be the 221st in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades and the fifth outside the station this year. This will be Koch's fourth spacewalk and Meir's first.

Meir will be the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. It will be the 43rd spacewalk to include a woman. Women have been performing spacewalks since 1984, when Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya spacewalked in July and U.S. astronaut Kathryn Sullivan conducted a spacewalked in October.

posted 10-18-2019 07:35 AM               

First all-female spacewalk has link to first US woman to walk in space

Two NASA astronauts have made history conducting the first all-female spacewalk, and did so using a spacesuit that shares a connection to the first U.S. woman to walk in space 35 years ago this month.

Christina Koch and Jessica Meir worked outside of the International Space Station on Friday (Oct. 18) to replace a power controller that failed the week before. The malfunction interrupted a series of scheduled spacewalks to upgrade the station's exterior-mounted batteries.

posted 10-18-2019 08:26 PM               

President Trump participates in a video call with the participants of the first all-women spacewalk.

posted 10-21-2019 03:10 PM               

Expedition 61 flight engineers Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who performed the first all-woman spacewalk on Friday (Oct. 18), respond to questions from collectSPACE about the history they made — and wore.

posted 11-11-2019 05:18 PM               

It's tough being small in a big-suit world. We still spacewalked.

LOW-EARTH ORBIT — It's tough being smaller in a big-suit world.

Aerospace is an industry that innovates with every leap, but what makes it so worth pursuing also makes it an endeavor with long development times. So when NASA designed new spacesuits in the 1970s after the Apollo missions, there were tradeoffs. Very few astronauts required a small suit, so given limited resources, the result was a spacesuit fleet that best fit larger bodies — typically male bodies.

But six years ago, before our astronaut class — the first class ever to be half women — stepped into our first spacewalk lesson, NASA made one thing very clear: Failure was not an option. We would be spacewalkers, and that meant all of us. Last month, that mantra rang true as the two of us embarked on the first spacewalk to be conducted with only women.

Nothing could have fully prepared us for what it would be like to float outside the space station. And even on one's 23rd — or 217th — day orbiting the Earth, as was the case for us, the vast expanse of the cosmos is still a wonder...

posted 11-12-2019 09:29 AM               

Peek outside the International Space Station and experience the first all-woman spacewalk with NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch and Jessica Meir.

posted 09-23-2020 11:05 AM               

In October 2019, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir exited the International Space Station and replaced a controller regulating the batteries that store the station's solar power. But the two astronauts accomplished much more than fixing the space station. They completed the first all-female spacewalk, shifting who we see as strong, brave, competent, and who's on the team pushing the boundaries of exploration...

Honored and hoping that our influence is toward a world of inclusion leading to greater shared successes. Thank you to my hero, Mae Jemison for the wise article and insights and to crew mate Jessica Meir for the amazing teamwork.

During these tumultuous times evoking such monumental contributions, from front line workers to those standing for social equity, we are beyond words seeing our NASA faces within this iconic red border. Thank you for your devotion awardees. Thank you Time.