Five Trippy GIFs Of The First All-Female Spacewalk

• 
  via Giphy

  The historic spacewalk took place on October 18 2019, with astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir performing the mission. It was Koch's fourth spacewalk and Meir's first. 

  
  

• Advertisement
• 
  via Giphy

  A spacewalk is any time an astronaut spends outside a vehicle in space. The first spacewalk lasted for ten minutes, but today they last around five to eight hours, depending on what needs to be done. Astronauts go on spacewalks for various reasons: to perform experiments in space, test new equipment, and do repairs. 

• 
  via Giphy

  Astronauts wear spacesuits when doing a spacewalk, which provide oxygen and water to drink. They're tethered to the spacecraft so they don't float away into space - which can be fatal. The tools and equipment astronauts use on spacewalks are also tethered, for the same reason. 

  
  

• 
  via Giphy

  This spacewalk marked the 42nd time a woman had been on a spacewalk, out of the 221 spacewalks that have occurred on the International Space Station. The first woman to perform a spacewalk was in 1984. 

• Advertisement
• 
  via Giphy

  Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson commented on the spacewalk from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, saying "I think the milestone is hopefully this will now be considered normal ... not to overshadow women [who] have been doing spacewalks for 35 years. I think many of us are looking forward to this just being normal."

  
  

  
  

Tags