NASA Schedules All-Female Spacewalk For Later This Month
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — After canceling what would have been a history-making all-female space walk in March, NASA announced Friday that it would again attempt to make history later this month.
As part of a series of 10 spacewalks to replace aging batteries at the International Space Station, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will become the first two women to complete a spacewalk together Oct. 21. It will be the fourth spacewalk in the series.
Koch, a native of Michigan, grew up in North Carolina where she attended North Carolina State University before becoming an astronaut in 2013. Meir, a native of Maine, went to college at Brown University before coming to Southern California for her doctorate in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. Meir was also selected by NASA to become an astronaut in 2013.
Back in March, NASA had to cancel the all-female spacewalk after an issue with spacesuits on board, and the agency has not ruled out additional issues.
"Lots of things can happen, not only with the...spacesuit hardware, but also other things on the station affecting station priorities," Megan McArthur said.
There are five more spacewalks scheduled for the rest of October, with five more aimed at repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer slated for November and December.