This Month's All-Female Spacewalk is Scheduled

After the dismantling of the first female spacewalk in March, NASA is now planning another attempt on 21 October with astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.

Photo by CNN

The announcement was made on Friday during a briefing by the organization, which anticipates ten spacewalks on the International Space Station by astronauts.
Koch was to be partnered with astronaut Anne McClain who has since returned to Earth for the scheduled spacewalk in March. In March, NASA cited the availability of the spacecraft as the reason for the scrapping. McClain took the decision herself, and the teams accepted it, Koch said.
"We are making every effort to predict the space suit sizes the astronaut wants, based on the spacesuit size of the training and astronaut training in multiple sizes in some cases (including those of Anne McClain)," Brandi Dean told the CNN in March. "Moreover, the size of individuals may vary if they are on orbit, in response to changes in microgravity in the body. Besides, no one training environment can fully simulate the quality of a spacewalk in microgravity, and a person may discover that their size preferences change in the vacuum."

Once asked this time about the availability of space trays, Koch said that two medium space trays are currently on deck. Following the modification of the first all-female program, Koch designed her second spacecraft with what was available onboard.

For the past six years, She and Meir have both been working in medium-sized suits.

In October, Koch will be performing three spacewalks with NASA's astronaut Andrew Morgan on October 6, Morgan, on October 11, and Meir on October 21.
On March 14, Koch arrived on her first spaceflight mission at the International Space Station. She remains on the station until February 2020, making a woman's longest single space flight on the planet.

The mission of Koch will be beyond Peggy Whitson, who has spent 288 consecutive days in space and ends up just short of NASA's longest single space flight: 340 days, calculated by Scott Kelly.
Over the next 3 months, there should be 10 spacecraft, "a frequency that has not been seen since the launch of the space station in 2011," according to a NASA tweet. The tweet also showed a pairing photo for the next routes.

LIVE NOW: Experts provide updates about a series of complex spacewalks by @NASA_Astronauts during the next three months, a cadence that has not been experienced since the assembly of the @Space_Station was completed in 2011. Tune in: https://t.co/mzKW5uDsTi. Ask ?s using #AskNASA pic.twitter.com/ny9TYLFN1N

— NASA (@NASA) October 4, 2019

This week Meir arrived at the space station for her first flight. Following her first spacewalk with Koch, she also performs a spacewalk with astronaut Luca Parmitano from the European Space Agency.
Upon arriving at the station, Meir shared an image of her embracing Koch.

This is how it feels when in addition to your childhood dream being fulfilled by arriving to @Space_Station, you're greeted by your Astro-brothers and sisters on the other side of the hatch. pic.twitter.com/mexDxMdWhd 

— Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) September 29, 2019

For the last six years, she and Koch have studied together because they are part of the same astronaut school. Meir is on the platform for more than six months.
The next spacewalks would help replace and upgrade the solar array batteries to lithium-ion batteries as well as renovate the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a research instrument' that explores the fundamental nature of the universe,' according to NASA.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/04/world/nasa-koch-meir-first-all-female-spacewalk-scn-trnd/index.html