Two NASA astronauts, Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, embark on a fourth all-female spacewalk mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, demonstrating women’s growing role in space exploration.

The main aim of the spacewalk is to perform maintenance on the International Space Station (ISS). The pair are tasked with removing an electronics box known as the Radio Frequency Group from the station’s communications antenna system. This gear is essential for transforming electric energy into radio waves that allow the ISS and Earth to communicate.

Mission time

The duo stepped outside the International Space Station ISS at 8:05 am EDT (1205 GMT) for a seven-hour spacewalk. You can watch a live coverage that began at 6:30 am EDT (1030 GMT) on NASA’s site. 

Moghbeli and O’Hara will replace one of the solar alpha rotary joint’s twelve trundle-bearing assemblies. These bearings are critical for properly rotating the station’s solar arrays, which allow them to track the Sun as the ISS orbits the Earth. This provides effective solar energy collecting and storage for electricity generation at the plant.

This is both astronauts’ first spacewalk. Moghbeli, the extravehicular activity crew member 1, is dressed in a red striped suit, whereas O’Hara, the extravehicular crew member 2, is dressed in an unmarked suit.

Purpose of this mission

In the near future, station managers intend to conduct another spacewalk with O’Hara and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. The purpose of this mission is to assemble samples from the orbital complex’s exterior for study. Scientists want to know if microbes can live in the harsh conditions of space. This spacewalk, now known as US spacewalk 90, has been pushed back until December.

So far, there have only been three all-female spacewalks, all of which have been completed by the same two persons, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who performed the missions in 2019 and 2020. However, NASA said that Koch, Meir, O’Hara, and Moghbeli will not remain outliers forever.

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