NASA set for two more all-female spacewalks on the ISS in January
NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are turning all-woman spacewalks into just another day at the office.
NASA's Christina Koch and Jessica Meir went on a spacewalk together in October 2019.
Soon, the first all-woman spacewalk will no longer stand alone in history.
NASA shared details for its January schedule of International Space Station spacewalks on Wednesday. Two of the three scheduled walks will be undertaken by astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, the two women who went on the historic first all-female spacewalk in October 2019.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine drew attention to the schedule, tweeting, "We have two more all-woman spacewalks coming up in January!"
We have two more all-woman spacewalks coming up in January! @Astro_Jessica and @Astro_Christina are scheduled to conduct spacewalks Wednesday, Jan. 15, and Monday, Jan. 20, to finish replacing nickel-hydrogen batteries on the @Space_Station. More: https://t.co/0MHJZ7VZl9
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) January 8, 2020
Meir and Koch's spacewalks to replace old batteries with new ones are set for Jan. 15 and Jan. 20. If the battery work goes according to plan, then NASA's Andrew Morgan and ESA's Luca Parmitano will step out on Jan. 25 to finish work on an external instrument called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
NASA will broadcast a livestream of all three spacewalks.
Last year, Koch expressed hope that all-woman spacewalks "will become commonplace." NASA's ISS maintenance schedule is putting that dream on track.
