NASA continues to make history with the first-ever all-female spacewalk last Friday, Oct. 18, with astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir as part of the historic team. In particular, this mission's spacewalk was held outside of the International Space Station, where the two women spent over seven hours replacing a malfunctioning battery charge/discharge unit (BCDU) which aids in powering the station systems. Such an achievement warranted a direct call from President Donald Trump, who congratulated the two astronauts for the remarkable feat. This was done alongside Vice President Mike Pence and First Daughter Ivanka Trump through a broadcast directly sent from the White House. The broadcast was also historic in itself since the last direct call to astronauts outside of a spacecraft was back in 1969 when former president Richard Nixon called the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon. It has been a long-standing tradition since Nixon's time for the president to make direct calls to astronauts on space missions, with President Trump continuing it last Oct. 18. "I just want to congratulate you, what you do is incredible," Trump said in the broadcast by NASA. "You're very brave people. I don't think I want to do it, I must tell you," as directly quoted by Space.com in their article.
A small blunder by Trump during the broadcast celebrated them as the "first female spacewalkers," but this was untrue as corrected by Meir who said that other female astronauts have already done spacewalks in the past. Meir quotes that "[the two] don't want to take too much credit because there have been many other female spacewalkers before." Despite the blunder, both astronauts were very thankful for the president's support, most especially at a time when girls are highly encouraged to take up STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. White House adviser Ivanka Trump particularly noted the impact of the first all-female spacewalk on the future of women in STEM. "Women in STEM are a force to be reckoned with and advocating for increased access to these fundamental educational skills has been some of the most important work I've been able to do," said Ivanka Trump after the call.
This call is the second space call by President Trump, the first one with astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson on April 24, 2017 while aboard the International Space Station. Whitson would be the US astronaut who broke the record for the longest stay in space at 534 days. The call was made alongside Ivanka Trump and U.S. astronaut Kate Rubins.
This historic event marks one of the many firsts for the space industry in the United States, and with more to come following the Trump administration's 1.6 billion USD investment in NASA. A 30-minute conference with both Christina Koch and Jessica Meir discussing their experiences on the mission will go live at noon EDT on the NASA website.
