History will be made later this month when Nasa carries out the first ever all-female spacewalk.
Almost 35 years since cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space, Nasa announced that the first ever all-female spacewalk will take place on March 29.
Astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch will embark on the historic spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Expedition 59 crew.
They will be supported by Canadian Space Agency flight controller Kristen Facciol, who will be serving as console at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Announcing the news on Twitter, Ms Facciol said: “I just found out that I’ll be on the console providing support for the first all-female spacewalk with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina.”
“I cannot contain my excitement,” she added.
This is said to be Ms McClain's first time in space and it will also be Ms Koch's first spaceflight.
The all-female spacewalk will be one of three such operations scheduled to be carried out once the ISS has a complement of six astronauts on March 14, a Nasa spokeswoman told The Independent.
She said the spacewalk, which is taking place during Women’s History Month, had “not been orchestrated to be this way” and said it would be focused on the replacement of batteries.
Spacewalks tend to last anywhere between five to eight hours.
