NASA conducts rare all-female spacewalk outside International Space Station: Watch
Two NASA astronauts have ventured outside the International Space Station to conduct a rare all-female spacewalk.
When astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers emerged around 9 a.m. Thursday, May 1, they began just the fifth-ever spacewalk with just women. The spacefarers, both of whom are military officers and pilots, are due to remain in the vacuum of space for a total of about six-and-a-half hours performing work on the outside of the orbital outpost.
McClain and Ayers are both part of a SpaceX mission known as Crew-10 that reached the space station in March. Their arrival with two other astronauts paved the way for the NASA astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to depart with the Crew-9 mission.
Here's what to know about the spacewalk and how to watch it live:
NASA is providing a livestream of the May 1 spacewalk on its streaming service, NASA+.
Watch it here:
A spacewalk, often called extra-vehicular activity in the parlance of space agencies, refers to any activity an astronaut undertakes outside of a space station or spacecraft. Spacewalks require suiting up in specialized suits and exposing oneself to the vacuum of outer space.
McClain, 45, and Ayers, 36 are taking part in the May 1 spacewalk outside the ISS.
For McClain, a native of Spokane Washington, the spacewalk is her third.
Selected as an astronaut in 2013, McClain has spent a prior total of 13 hours and 8 minutes conducting two spacewalks – both occurring on her first 204-day spaceflight between 2018 and 2019. She is wearing a suit with red stripes.
The spacewalk is the first for Ayers, of San Diego, California, who is wearing an unmarked suit. Ayers is also on her first spaceflight after being selected as an astronaut in 2022.
Both Ayers and McClain arrived at the station in mid-March on the Crew-10 mission.
The SpaceX crew missions contracted under NASA are fairly routine six-month trips to the space station for astronauts to conduct science experiments. But this particular mission had added significance because it allowed for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew to the station in June on the ill-fated Starliner spacecraft, to finally return home.
The spacewalk is just the fifth all-female spacewalk since astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history in 2019 when they conducted the first spacewalk ever with just women.
It's also the first since November 2023 when Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara ventured outside the International Space Station.
Ayers and McClain are working to install a mounting bracket to prepare another new set of solar panels to be installed at the space station. The astronauts also will move a space station communications antenna.
Earlier this year, Suni Williams made additional history for women astronauts when she set a record Jan. 30 during her ninth-ever spacewalk.
Williams ventured outside with Wilmore, her fellow Starliner crew member, and before the spacewalk even came to an end, she surpassed the record for the most total time any woman has spent in the vacuum of space.
After she and Wilmore spent more than six hours venturing outside the space station, Williams has now spent a cumulative 62 hours and 6 minutes conducting spacewalks. Only three other people in the world have spent more cumulative time on spacewalks than Williams.
The previous record of 60 hours and 21 minutes was set in 2017 by now-former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. Whitson's 10 career spacewalks are still the most any woman has ever made, according to NASA.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA astronauts conduct rare all-female spacewalk: Watch live
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