NASA astronauts conduct the first all-female spacewalk
Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir plan to float outside the International Space Station on Friday for a five-and-a-half-hour spacewalk — the first ever carried out by two women — to replace a faulty component in the lab's solar power system, western media sources reported.
According to the source, it will be the first all-female spacewalk in the 54 years since the late Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov carried out history's first spacewalk, or EVA (extravehicular activity), in 1965. Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space during an outing with a male cosmonaut in 1984. NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan followed suit later that year, joining astronaut David Leestma for a shuttle spacewalk.
Koch became the 14th woman to walk in space earlier this year and Meir will be the 15th. Other than Savitskaya, all are current or retired NASA astronauts, according to the report by CBS news.