NASA and ESA Astronauts Conduct Sixth-Ever All-Female Spacewalk at ISS

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency conducted history's sixth all-female spacewalk on September 1, venturing outside the International Space Station for an excursion expected to last about 6.5 hours. Adenot served as "crew member 1" and wore a suit with red stripes, while Meir served as "crew member 2" in an unmarked suit.

The astronauts replaced a retroreflector on the forward port of the station's Harmony module, a device that supports spacecraft navigation during rendezvous and docking operations, NASA officials said. They then installed jumper cables for the station's data-relay systems, prepared the radiator of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer for future maintenance, and replaced a high-definition camera on the station's truss. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is a $2 billion particle physics experiment mounted to the ISS exterior that studies cosmic rays and searches for dark matter.

It was the third spacewalk for Adenot, who two weeks earlier became the first French woman to perform an extravehicular activity. For Meir, it was her seventh spacewalk, putting her third among female NASA astronauts for total spacewalks, behind Peggy Whitson with 10 and Suni Williams with 9.

There have been just five all-female ISS spacewalks before this one, and Meir has taken part in three of them - the first three ever conducted. She carried out those with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch on October 18, 2019, January 15, 2020 and January 20, 2020.