NASA Moves Up 1st All-Female Spacewalk to This Week

Astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir are scheduled to spacewalk together on Oct. 17 or Oct. 18, 2019.
Astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir are scheduled to spacewalk together on Oct. 17 or Oct. 18, 2019. (Image credit: NASA)

We won't have to wait quite as long as we'd thought for the first all-female spacewalk, if all goes according to plan. 

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir had been scheduled to venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) together next Monday (Oct. 21), as part of a series of excursions to install new batteries. But they've been retasked and fast-tracked, thanks to the failure of one of the orbiting lab's power controllers over the weekend, NASA officials announced today (Oct. 15).

"@Space_Station update: our first all-female spacewalk with @Astro_Christina and @Astro_Jessica will be Thursday or Friday to replace a faulty battery charge-discharge unit," NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said via Twitter. More details will be relayed during a press conference later today, he added.

Related: The Most Memorable Spacewalks in History

See more

The power glitch is a repeat of an issue that occurred in April after a battery-pack swap, NASA officials said during a press conference today. The failed battery charge/discharge unit (BCDU) will come back to Earth a few months from now aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule, and engineers will inspect the hardware to try to figure out what happened, they added. (The BCDU that failed in April is already on Earth, and researchers will compare the two units to see if the same issue afflicted both of them.)  

Just 15 women have ever conducted a spacewalk, and all of them did so with a male companion. So Koch and Meir will make some long-overdue history.

And speaking of overdue: The all-female milestone was originally scheduled for March, and was to involve Koch and NASA astronaut Anne McClain. But that spacewalk was scuttled because properly fitted spacesuits could not be readied in time for both astronauts.

McClain, who came back to Earth in June, had kind words for Koch, Meir and their colleagues aboard the orbiting lab.

"Third spacewalk in a busy season of spacewalks this week. Date is unknown bc the task was unforeseen: replacing a unit that failed during power-ups of new batteries. Very good that we have 4 expert spacewalkers on board to shoulder this tough task. They are the A-team!" McClain said via Twitter today.

Six people are serving on the space station's current Expedition 61: Koch, Meir, and fellow NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan; Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka; and the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano, who commands the mission.

See more

Editor's note: This story was updated at 5:15 p.m. EDT to incorporate information from a NASA press conference. 

Space.com associate editor Hanneke Weitering contributed to this story.

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.