Two International Space Station (ISS) astronauts have completed a landmark spacewalk – only the fourth ever to be carried out by an all-female crew and, at that, just the second pair of female spacewalkers.
To put this in context, there have been 269 spacewalks at the ISS since 1998, the vast majority undertaken by all-male teams. The three previous all-female spacewalks were all performed by the same NASA astronauts: Christina Koch and Jessica Meir in October 2019 and January 2020.
Class of 2017 teammates
This time, the pair of female Expedition 70 crewmates were Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara. O’Hara came through NASA’s 2017 astronaut candidate class, which had nearly equal numbers of men and women upon selection. Having passed basic training in 2020, she became eligible for spaceflight and her selection happened relatively quickly compared to some peers who can wait years.
She has previously worked as the NASA astronaut office’s director of operations in Russia, as well as in NASA’s deep-sea submersible research – something she has said is similar in some ways to spacewalking. “Remotely operated vehicles — so, those are vehicles that are tethered to the ships. Similarly as astronauts, when we’re doing spacewalks, we’re tethered to the space station. So tether management was important both in my work at Woods Hole, and then also as an astronaut.”
Moghbeli also came through the class of 2017. An AH-1W Super Cobra pilot and Marine Corps test pilot, she served active duty in Afghanistan and has over 150 combat missions and 2,000 hours of flight time in over 25 different aircraft to her name.
Essential maintenance
The pair’s tasks on the EVA (extra vehicular activity), which took place over six hours on Wednesday November 1, 2023, included essential maintenance such as replacing bearings on solar arrays so that they rotate correctly; straightening data cables; and preparing an electronics box, called the Radio Frequency Group (RFG), for removal.
That’s a wrap! Today’s spacewalk outside the @Space_Station concluded at 2:47pm ET (1847 UTC).
— NASA (@NASA) November 1, 2023
Here’s one more look at Earth from today’s 6-hour, 42-minute spacewalk, taken shortly before @AstroJaws reentered the station. pic.twitter.com/NnaxZMs8FL
This latter chore had been slated for an earlier EVA in spring 2023 carried out by NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen and United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi. The degradation of equipment meant that other tasks took longer than anticipated and the electronic box removal again proved too problematic to complete this time, so the pair focused on preparing the way for future spacewalkers to get it done.
“Very special”
Back in the airlock, Moghbeli expressed some personal sentiment. “This is a very special moment for me, going on my first spacewalk with a good friend and someone I really look up to, Loral.” said Jasmin Moghbeli.
“I feel the same way about the spacewalk with you,” replied O’Hara.
