All-woman spacewalk set for end of March

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - An all-woman NASA team will make its first spacewalk at the end of this month.

Anne McClain and Christina Koch will “walk in space” March 29, the USA Today newspaper reported Wednesday. The duo was selected by NASA in 2013.

Spacewalks allow astronauts to “work on the outside of their spacecraft” while in space, conduct science experiments as well as test new equipment, the report quotes NASA.

The mission is part of Expedition 59 that is scheduled to begin March 14 at the International Space Station.

Canadian Space Agency flight controller Kristen Facciol, revealed the news on Twitter on March 1, writing, “I just found out that I’ll be on console providing support for the FIRST ALL FEMALE SPACEWALK with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina and I can not contain my excitement!!!! #WomenInSTEM #WomenInEngineering #WomenInSpace.”

The newspaper said U.S. and Russia have conducted 213 spacewalks with the Americans taking the lead with 160.

“Spacewalks outside of the space station typically last anywhere from five to eight hours, but it's currently unknown how long this spacewalk will be,” the report added.

McClain was part of Expedition 58 and this will be the first spaceflight for Koch, who will be the flight’s engineer.

Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space on July 25, 1984.