U.S. astronauts embark on the first all-female spacewalk

[rooster59]

U.S. astronauts embark on the first all-female spacewalk

By Joey Roulette

 

U.S. astronaut Jessica Meir walks outside the International Space Station (ISS), in this still image taken from NASA video, October 18, 2019. NASA TV/REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - Two NASA astronauts made space history on Friday, completing the first spacewalk by an all-woman team when they stepped outside the International Space Station.

 

Christina Koch and Jessica Meir accomplished the much-anticipated milestone for NASA during a relatively routine mission to swap faulty batteries on the station's exterior.

 

"Mission accomplished!" NASA chief Jim Bridenstine tweeted on Friday. "Today’s historic achievement paves the way for our #Artemis programme, which will send the first woman to the Moon in 2024."

 

"Ad Astra!" he added, Latin for "to the stars".

 

NASA aims to return to the moon with crewed missions by 2024 under the programme dubbed Artemis, who in Greek mythology was the twin sister of Apollo, the name of the original moon programme.

 

Koch and Meir, clad in white spacesuits and tethered by cords to the station some 254 miles (408 km) above Earth, stepped into outer space at 7:38 a.m. Eastern time (1138 GMT) to replace a faulty power unit designed to help condition energy stored from the station's solar panels, NASA announced online as it showed live video of the action.

 

A first attempt at an all-female spacewalk in March was called off because one of the astronauts' medium-sized spacesuits was not configured and ready for the journey.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Koch and Meir by phone from the White House during the final stretch of the spacewalk. "Station, this is President Donald Trump. Do you hear me?"

 

The president, flanked by his daughter Ivanka Trump and vice president Mike Pence, said the astronauts were "brave, brilliant women" and mistakenly lauded the two as the first women to step outside the space station, prompting a gentle correction from Meir.

 

"We don't want to take too much credit, because there have been many other female space-walkers before us. This is just the first time that there have been two women outside at the same time," Meir, the 15th woman to conduct a spacewalk, responded.

 

Astronauts on the space station, which became operational in 2000, have tallied 221 maintenance spacewalks, 43 of which included women astronauts, according to NASA.

 

Friday's spacewalk, formally called extravehicular activities, is in line with the U.S. space agency's aim to ramp up inclusivity in space.

 

Koch is scheduled set to complete the longest single space flight by a woman by remaining in orbit aboard the station until February 2020. She said gender milestones such as the spacewalk are significant.

 

"There are a lot of people who derive motivation from inspiring stories from people who look like them, and I think that it's an important aspect of the story to tell," she said at a NASA briefing in Houston this month.

 

Sandra Magnus, a former NASA astronaut who spent 136 days on the International Space Station, told Reuters she did not want events like Friday's spacewalk to become gimmicks.

 

"We want them to happen because people have the skill sets and they're available to do the job," said Magnus.

 

"On the other hand, it's important for young women to see women role models doing extraordinary things," she said. "So there's two sides of the coin. You want it to be normal but yet you want it to be special."

 

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-10-19

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[metisdead]

A troll post has been removed. 

[DrTuner]

Ok. Don't really get the all this and that news. They never did one from our crew when we cleaned the dishes after a BBQ in an all-man-team.

[canuckamuck]

Where was the media when it was my turn to change a diaper?

[rabas]

Indeed wonderful news for space exploration. Can't wait for the day female astronauts start asking "Why are we always the ones sent out to change the batteries?"

 

[legend49]

Good achievement. Undermined by Donny as usual making a wrong statement live which the female astronauts corrected him .

[Tug]

Kudos lady’s 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 10/19/2019 at 12:00 PM, rooster59 said:

"We don't want to take too much credit, because there have been many other female space-walkers before us. This is just the first time that there have been two women outside at the same time," Meir, the 15th woman to conduct a spacewalk, responded.

Exactly, so why is this a big deal? Women can do anything since decades ago.

[HLover]

On 10/19/2019 at 6:00 AM, rooster59 said:

On the other hand, it's important for young women to see women role models doing extraordinary things

Kardashians exemption....

[chokrai]

14 hours ago, legend49 said:

Good achievement. Undermined by Donny as usual making a wrong statement live which the female astronauts corrected him .

Orange Man Bad.

 

[Happy Grumpy]

What has the gender got to do with anything?

 

Why is it such a big deal if the 2 astronauts doing their job are male, female, trans, rainbow, gender fluid, black, white or yellow?

 

Are women seen as less than men or something?

 

Sounds massively patronizing for them. 

[Dumbastheycome]

26 minutes ago, chokrai said:

Orange Man Bad.

 

No. Just  dense !

[Dumbastheycome]

I  can only admire the courage of any person willing to drift about in space dependent on the integrity of equipment they are obliged to have trust in.

But still trying to understand the significance of gender in this scenario.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 10/22/2019 at 4:16 AM, Happy Grumpy said:

What has the gender got to do with anything?

 

Why is it such a big deal if the 2 astronauts doing their job are male, female, trans, rainbow, gender fluid, black, white or yellow?

 

Are women seen as less than men or something?

 

Sounds massively patronizing for them. 

I've been thinking about this thread since my first reply.

I now think it's actually insulting women to make a fuss, as it implies women are not actually capable of making a spacewalk without a man around to take care of them, and it is only because they are somehow different in that they can.

Till women can do anything without a big fuss being made about it they will never be really equal to men.

 

BTW, far as I can ascertain, NO astronauts have died during a spacewalk, so providing the training is followed, it seems a reasonably safe procedure.

On the other hand being a female police officer in the US is quite dangerous and some die in the line of duty every year, but the POTUS doesn't make a speech praising female police officers every time one goes out on patrol.