US makes history with first all-female spacewalk

Historic milestone

US astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir became the first all-female pairing to carry out a spacewalk Friday, a historic milestone as NASA prepares to send the first woman to the Moon.

The mission was originally planned for earlier this year but had to be aborted due to a lack of properly fitting spacesuits, leading to allegations of sexism. 
 

(Photograph:Reuters)

US astronaut Christina Koch

US astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are the first all-female pairing to carry out the historic spacewalk.

The two were working to replace a faulty battery charge/discharge unit, known as a BCDU.

Koch, an electrical engineer who is leading the mission, is carrying out her fourth spacewalk and was hooked up to the station's robot arm. 

(In picture: Christina Koch)

(Photograph:Reuters)

US astronaut Jessica Meir

Jessica Meir, who holds a doctorate in marine biology and is making her first-ever spacewalk, made her way carefully across using handles.

(Photograph:Reuters)

Standard safety checks

They began their mission with standard safety checks on their suits and tethers, before making their way to the repair site on the station's port side, as the sunlit Earth came into view

(Photograph:Reuters)

'You are very brave, brilliant women'

When they had been outside space station for about five hours, President Donald Trump reached the astronauts in a video call and told them they had made history.

"You are very brave, brilliant women," Trump told Koch and Meir.

"You represent this country so well," the president added. "We are very proud of you."

(Photograph:Reuters)