Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are set to walk outside the International Space Station on October 21st.
NASA cancelled the original spacewalk after discovering they didn’t have appropriately sized spacesuits necessary for the two female astronauts, Anne McClain and Christina Koch. Both women needed a medium-sized spacesuit, but only one was available.
At the time, both women were shocked and McClain was replaced by a male colleague, Nick Hague.
The cancellation caused an uproar. Upon hearing the news, Hilary Clinton tweeted “make another suit.”
Make another suit. https://t.co/mu9w13xsi0
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 26, 2019
This time around, NASA has two female friendly spacesuits ready to go.
Koch and Meir will plug in upgraded batteries for the solar power system when they conduct their spacewalk.
“What we’re doing now shows all of the work that went in for the decades prior, all of the women that worked to get us where we are today,” Meir said during an interview on the space station.
.@Astro_Christina and @Astro_Jessica are scheduled for a spacewalk together on Oct. 21. They recently talked about how their accomplishments are viewed in terms of being female astronauts. pic.twitter.com/yTJ0kVH40f
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) October 4, 2019
“There are a lot of people that derive motivation from inspiring stories from people that look like them,” Koch said in the same interview.
“And I think it’s an important aspect of the story to tell.”
Koch and Meir’s history-making spacewalk is one of ten spacewalks that NASA has planned for the rest of the year.