NASA all-female crew spacewalk to take place this month

We find it incredibly exciting that two NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Christina H. Koch will be making history as the first all-female crew to conduct a spacewalk at the International Space Station.

The historic event will take place come 29 March 2019, CNN reports. McClain and Koch will be supported on the ground by Canadian Space Agency flight controller Kristen Facciol, who will be on the console at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Faccio was the first to share the exciting news on Twitter, tweeting: “I just found out that I’ll be on console providing support for the FIRST ALL FEMALE SPACEWALK with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina and I can not contain my excitement!!!! #WomenInSTEM #WomenInEngineering #WomenInSpace.”

Speaking about the project, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz  tells CNN,
“As currently scheduled, the March 29 spacewalk will be the first with only women

“It is the second in a series of three planned spacewalks. Anne also will join Nick Hague for the March 22 spacewalk. And, of course, assignments and schedules could always change.

“It was not orchestrated to be this way; these spacewalks were originally scheduled to take place in the fall.

“In addition to the two female spacewalkers, the Lead Flight Director is Mary Lawrence, and Jackie Kagey (also a woman), is the lead EVA (spacewalk) flight controller.”

Spacewalks are held for a number of different reasons, according to NASA, including doing work outside a spacecraft, conducting science experiments and testing new equipment. Astronauts also conduct spacewalks to fix satellites or spacecraft that are already in space, instead of having them brought back to Earth to fix.