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NASA wonder women make history with all-female spacewalk

It was one small step for two women, one giant leap for womankind.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir of Maine and Christina Koch of North Carolina made history Friday by making the first all-female spacewalk.

They toiled in space for seven hours and 17 minutes outside the International Space Station safely completing the world’s 420th spacewalk. They headed out 220 miles above Earth to fix a broken part of the power network

“The whole family is very proud of her,” said Rakel Meir of Winchester, Jessica’s sister. “It’s something she worked her whole life to do. I hope she inspired young girls and boys alike to reach for their dreams.”

The milestone was beamed live to schoolchildren and more than a million others live on NASA.gov — with mission control taking questions sent over Twitter to the hash tag #AskNASA.

“You’re doing an incredible job,” President Trump told the astronauts during a call to the space station. “This is a first step, because we’re going to the moon, and then we’re going to Mars.”

The spacewalkers replaced a failed power controller, also known as a battery charge-discharge unit, according to NASA. They were meticulous as every move was anticipated to avoid ripping their spacesuits or sending them spinning into space.

“What we’re flying over now is beautiful,” said Koch as she worked early on in the walk. She was told by NASA it was Saudi Arabia down below.

They went in and out of sunrise and sunset as they worked on the roof of the world.

“It’s an amazing accomplishment,” Rakel Meir told the Herald about the spacewalk. “But she doesn’t focus on gender.”

Meir joked in a Twitter post that she could now check off the box next to “first spacesuit selfie.” It was the fourth spacewalk for Koch and the first for Meir.

Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to head out on a spacewalk in 1984. NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan performed one that same year. Koch and Meir were the 13th and 14th women, respectively, to perform spacewalks.

The women used wrenches, screwdrivers and power-grip tools along with the space station’s robotic arm to make the necessary fixes.

“What you do is incredible. You’re very brave people,” Trump told them near the end of the mission.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted: “NASA has captured the imaginations of the world for generations. Congratulations to @Astro_Christina
& @Astro_Jessica for leaving their mark on history with today’s #AllWomanSpacewalk. You are an inspiration to women & girls across America.”

The astronauts downplayed it all, but spacewalking is considered the most dangerous assignment in orbit.

“We don’t want to take too much credit because there have been many others — female spacewalkers — before us,”  Jessica Meir said. “This is just the first time that there have been two women outside at the same time … For us, this is really just us doing our job.”

“The sky is not the limit!!” a sign held up by middle school students watching summed up the historic day.

Gearing up for Friday’s spacewalk to help the ground teams repair one of the battery channels with @Astro_Christina.

. . . first spacesuit selfie, check!✔️

Photos will be much more spectacular once we pass through the hatch. Be sure to watch live: https://t.co/8ggAQFbzAh pic.twitter.com/oXUDnDvLLY

— Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) October 16, 2019

Curb appeal. It’s not often I get to see my house from the outside. This photo I snapped on my spacewalk last Friday captures the habitable modules that I have called home for the last eight months. Pretty lucky to be living inside an engineering marvel. pic.twitter.com/djbnCstXfN

— Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) October 15, 2019