Women in space out of this world
US astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir have become the first all-female pair to carry out a space walk.
“Christina, you may egress the airlock,” spacecraft communicator Stephanie Wilson said soon after they set out to replace a power controller on the International Space Station.
They began their mission making standard safety checks on their suits and tethers, before making their way to the repair site.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine emphasised its symbolic importance.
“We want to make sure that space is available to all people, and this is another milestone in that evolution,” he said. “I have an 11-year-old daughter, I want her to see herself as having all the same opportunities that I (had) when I was growing up.”
The first such mission was supposed to take place in March but was cancelled because the space agency had only one medium-sized suit, with a male-female combination performing the required task at a later date.
Traditionally male-dominated NASA’s failure to be adequately prepared was denounced in some quarters as evidence of implicit sexism.
Ms Koch, an electrical engineer, was leading Ms Meir, who holds a doctorate in marine biology and was making her first ever space walk. The two were working to replace a faulty battery charge/discharge unit.
The task was part of a wider mission of replacing ageing nickel-hydrogen batteries with lithium-ion units.