NASA Is Scheduling the First-Ever All-Female Spacewalk This Month

It will be the first all-female spacewalk since spacewalks were first conducted in 1965.

While space agencies around the world have been running expeditions into outer space for more than 50 years, they've always had one thing in common: the spacewalks were almost always exclusively conducted by men. 

But that's about to change with NASA scheduling a spacewalk on the International Space Station later this month with two female astronauts.

First fit check of our actual spacecraft - the Soyuz rocket! This will be the last time we test the systems while wearing our launch and landing space suits. Great to see the real deal with the crew! pic.twitter.com/H7SdhgFuSn

— Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) March 6, 2019

Earth will learn a lot during his busy week on @Space_Station - today he kept me company while we checked our suit sizing to account for space growth (I am 2 inches taller than when I launched!), then we did some translation adaptation. pic.twitter.com/A89tJauyQu

— Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) March 4, 2019

Of course, they're not the first women to carry out a spacewalk. That honour goes to Russian astronaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, who became the first woman to spacewalk in 1984.

Since then, 500 or so people have had the privilege of spacewalking but only 11 per cent of them were female and never has there been an all-female spacewalking team. 

It marks an important step in history as more women are encouraged to join STEM fields. Previously, aspiring female astronauts had a small pool of female astronauts to look up to with the greats like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong being the most omnipresent.

We run the world & now space too!!! First ever all female space walk, excellent progress @NASA https://t.co/a61GJoeDBX

— Annie Parker 🌈 (@annie_parker) March 7, 2019

An all female space walk at NASA is taking place this week -after woman have been going into space for 50 years-Dr.Ellen Stofan @airandspace how exciting -the depiction of women in these industries is so scarce! It’s eye-opening #Aviation19

— Hannah Eason (@theglamwithin) March 7, 2019

This #WomensHistoryMonth2019, I would like to honor @NASA's first female astronauts, Kathryn Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, Anna Fischer, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride & Rhea Seddon, who inspired so many of us growing up in the 70s & 80s and showed us that no dream is too big. pic.twitter.com/JkGD96A28Y

— Karen L. Nyberg (@AstroKarenN) March 4, 2019

Their liftoff is scheduled for 14 March with the spacewalk slated for 29 March and lasting seven hours.

Header Image: iStock.com/chainatp