Two Women Astronauts to Do a Spacewalk Together for First Time In History

On Thursday, during the press conference at the Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia devoted to the launch of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, American astronaut Christina Koch confirmed that the first-ever joint exit of two women into outer space is planned on the end of March.

The two women are American astronauts Christina Koch, who in mid-March will go to the ISS, and Anne McClain, who is now at the station. Тhey will leave the ISS and conduct scientific experiments in open space.

Koch will travel to the ISS as part of the ISS-59/60 main crew, which also includes NASA astronauts Nick Haig and Christina Koch, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin. As reported at the conference, the crew has already completed complex training and preparations. The launch of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for March 14.

The duration of Soyuz MS-12 flight will be more than 200 days. For the flight to the ISS, the spacecraft will also carry Progress, Dragon, Cygnus and HTV cargo ships.

In 1984, Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman in the world to take a spacewalk when she spent more than three hours outside the ISS. Moreover, together with the cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov, she carried out the first works on cutting, welding and soldering, which were of great practical importance for the development of astronautics.

Photo credit: Roscosmos