Finally, An All-Female Spacewalk

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2019

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the first all-female spacewalk last week. The historic moment came 35 years after Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to spacewalk. We hear from Koch, Meir, and Sullivan. And former NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan tells us why she says this moment is long overdue. Follow host Maddie Sofia on Twitter @maddie_sofia. Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:06.0	Back in March, NASA got us real jazzed up about an all-female spacewalk.
0:11.5	For the first time, a 100% female team was going to float outside the International Space
0:17.1	Station and take care of some astronaut business.
0:20.8	And then, it was canceled.
0:22.6	NASA says the first spacewalk featuring two women astronauts will not happen as scheduled
0:27.7	this week.
0:28.7	Basically, both astronauts needed a medium-sized space suit, and only one medium suit was ready
0:33.9	to go.
0:35.3	Not a great look for NASA.
0:36.8	Women on social media blasted the decision, including Hillary Clinton, who tweeted,
0:41.5	make another suit.
0:42.5	And then, fast forward to last Friday.
0:45.0	Christina Jessica, with that, the emergency.
0:47.0	MPEV is closed.
0:48.3	It finally happened.
0:49.3	Jessica, Christina, we are so proud of you.
0:52.7	You're going to do great today.
0:54.9	This astronaut's Christina Cook and Jessica Meir, both in medium-sized suits, floated into
1:00.1	open space.
1:01.7	To replace some faulty equipment related to powering the station.
1:05.3	Do you think so much?
	...

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