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The First All-Women Spacewalk!


On October 18th, 2019, a group of all-female astaunauts worked together to replace a broken International Space Station power grid. This spacewalk represents the encouragement of womens rights, highlighting the STEM field. With all of NASA and many women empowering organizations cheering them on, the spacewalk was successfully completed and made history.

A spacewalk is when astronauts must exit their station in order to repair or replace a broken part (check out a picture here!). This was NASA’s 221th spacewalk, but the first with all women. The astronauts who completed the spacewalk, Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, exemplify a milestone for all women’s rights as history has developed. Preceding a time like this, women would have never been able to train to become astronauts and advanced scientists. The United States’ first female space walker, Kathy Sullivan, happily stated, “We've got qualified women running the control, running space centers, commanding the station, commanding spaceships and doing spacewalks...And golly, gee whiz, every now and then there's more than one woman in the same place." This achievement is an inspiration to girls who are interested in STEM. NASA even released an article, regarding history and the future, the day of the walk(see here). To many, the future looks brighter with more opportunity for women and this Spacewalk was able to recognize that.

Does this spacewalk give hope for the rights of women in general and in the science and technology field? Are you optimistic for the future or do you have speculations? Have there been a lot changes since the past or do you believe we have not gotten far enough in women’s rights? What do you believe these female astronauts represent for our world today?

Comments

  1. Mr. LawlerNovember 7, 2019 at 1:14 PM

    From Marin:
    I think this shows great progress for women and girls everywhere! I hope that young girls can look up to these women. I think the female astronauts represent our push towards acceptance in our society today, even though we still have a long way to go.

    ReplyDelete

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