Jessica Meir Completes 7th ISS Spacewalk, Moving to No. 3 Among NASA Women

Q: Jessica Meir just completed her seventh spacewalk, but what will it take for her to shatter the all-time female record?

Jessica Meir will need at least four more spacewalks to set the all-time female record, and three more just to tie it. Tuesday’s EVA was Meir’s seventh, which moved her into third place among NASA women behind Suni Williams with nine and Peggy Whitson with 10. That means Meir must complete two more spacewalks to pass Williams, three more to equal Whitson, and a fourth beyond that to move alone into first place with 11. Whether she can do it soon depends less on rank than on opportunity. Spacewalk totals rise only when an astronaut is assigned to missions with significant outside maintenance work, and Meir is currently on her second long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station as commander of SpaceX Crew-12. If NASA schedules multiple additional EVAs during this expedition or on a future mission, she could close the gap quickly. The broader context is that Whitson’s mark is formidable not just in count but in longevity. Whitson built her total across multiple NASA missions and later commercial flights, and remains the female leader in cumulative EVA experience as well. Meir, however, is still actively flying and remains one of NASA’s most experienced current spacewalkers. So the path is straightforward: continued flight assignments and at least four additional successful EVAs. That would give Meir 11 and the outright female record.

3 articles · Updated · Press Herald · Aug 31

Jessica Meir stepped outside the International Space Station on Tuesday for her seventh spacewalk, a milestone that moves her into third place among NASA women for total EVAs.
More than 6 hours of work were planned for Meir and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, including replacing a retroreflector used for rendezvous and docking, installing jumper cables for data-relay systems, preparing a radiator for future maintenance and swapping out a camera.
The spacewalk began at 8:40 a.m., with NASA streaming the operation across its website, NASA+, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Discovery+.
Meir, commander of SpaceX Crew-12, returned to the station in February for her second ISS mission after a 205-day 2019 flight that included the first all-female spacewalk; Peggy Whitson leads NASA women with 10 spacewalks and Suni Williams has 9.