Updated
Updated · Space.com · Sep 1
Meir, Adenot Conduct 6th All-Female ISS Spacewalk for 6.5-Hour Maintenance Mission
Updated
Updated · Space.com · Sep 1

Meir, Adenot Conduct 6th All-Female ISS Spacewalk for 6.5-Hour Maintenance Mission

3 articles · Updated · Space.com · Sep 1

Summary

  • Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot were set to leave the ISS around 1230 GMT on the sixth all-female station spacewalk, with NASA live coverage starting at 1100 GMT.
  • The roughly 6.5-hour excursion centers on replacing a retroreflector on Harmony's forward port to aid spacecraft rendezvous and docking, then installing data-relay jumper cables, preparing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer radiator for later work and swapping a high-definition camera.
  • Adenot, wearing red stripes as crew member 1, is making her third spacewalk just two weeks after becoming the first French woman to perform an EVA; Meir, in an unmarked suit as crew member 2, is making her seventh.
  • Meir also took part in the first three all-female ISS spacewalks with Christina Koch in 2019 and 2020, and her seventh EVA moves her to third among female NASA astronauts behind Peggy Whitson's 10 and Suni Williams' nine.

Insights

With Jessica Meir nearing a historic milestone, what hidden challenges could jeopardize her seventh critical spacewalk outside the aging ISS?
As U.S. spacewalk 99 begins, how will internal robotic coordination prevent disaster while astronauts navigate the hazardous vacuum of space?
What cosmic mysteries is the massive Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer hiding that makes its risky orbital maintenance absolutely essential today?