NASA announce first all-female spacewalk

Illustration by Megan Bevis

Anna McClain and Christina Hammock Koch make history as the astronauts in the first all-female spacewalk.

The first all-female spacewalk is set to take place on March 29 as the women-led operation will undertake a routine operation known as extravehicular activities.

Christina Hammock Koch (left) and Anna McClain (right), NASA

Anna McClain (Lt Col, U.S Army) and Christina Hammock Koch will be performing the spacewalk, while Mary Lawrence and Jackie Kagey will be providing support as the lead flight director and lead flight controller, and Kristen Facciol on console at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

A spacewalk is when the astronauts put on their spacesuits and go outside of the International Space Station (ISS). In this case, the female astronauts will be leaving the ISS to change old batteries from the outside.

Over 213 spacewalks have been completed so far since the ISS launched in 1998, but there has never been a fully led all-female crew before in history. Fewer than 11% of over 500 people who have been to space have been female. But it seems as though change is on the horizon, as it has been announced that McClain and Koch were both part of the 2013 NASA class that was made up of 50% female.

The announcement is a fitting and celebratory end to International Women’s History month, with the spacewalk due to take place on March 29. McClain, Koch, Lawrence, Kagey and Facciol will all make history as the first all-female space crew leading the spacewalk, taking one big step towards gender equality in STEM science.