NASA just announced the planning of an all-female spacewalk on March 29th – a first in the history of the U.S. space agency. Reports confirmed that NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch would carry out the mission as part of Expedition 59.
The duo will be supported on the ground by flight controller Kristen Facciol of the Canadian Space Agency from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Facciol expressed her excitement about the upcoming event on a public tweet over the weekend, saying:
“I just found out that I’ll be on console providing support for the FIRST ALL FEMALE SPACEWALK with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina and I can not contain my excitement!!!!”
All-Female Spacewalk
In an emailed statement to CNN, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz wrote:
“As currently scheduled, the March 29 spacewalk will be the first with only women. It is the second in a series of three planned spacewalks. Anne also will join Nick Hague for the March 22 spacewalk. And, of course, assignments and schedules could always change.”
Astronauts McClain and Koch were part of NASA’s 2013 astronaut class. McClain is a current resident of the International Space Station as part of Expedition 58, while Koch will be part of Expedition 59 and 60, scheduled to blast off on March 14th.
NASA stated that this was not a planned all-female spacewalk. Since the agency holds both genders to the same standards, ISS astronauts are equally qualified to conduct tasks like repairing and installing instruments within or outside the space station.
“It was not orchestrated to be this way; these spacewalks were originally scheduled to take place in the fall. In addition to the two female spacewalkers, the Lead Flight Director is Mary Lawrence, and Jackie Kagey (also a woman), is the lead EVA (spacewalk) flight controller.”
According to NASA’s website, the spacewalk will last for about seven hours.
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