NASA's First All-Women Spacewalk Happens This Month!

You know times are truly changing when one’s sex and gender don’t define what kind of job or career path you take. Leading the pack in reshaping our mindset about women at work is NASA, as it gears up for the first all-female spacewalk this month. For those in the dark about what a spacewalk is, it’s when an astronaut “gets out of a vehicle while space,” according to the NASA website. This task involves going out into space to test a new equipment or to work on a spacecraft or satellite. Think Sandra Bullock in Gravity.

The timely spacewalk – it is still the International Women’s History Month – is scheduled on March 29. The International Space Walk Station’s Expedition 59 welcomes astronauts Anne McClain, Christina Koch, and flight controller Jackie Kagey into a 7-hour spacewalk. Lead flight director Mary Lawrence and NASA engineer Kristen Facciol take control on the ground at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

In a tweet last week, Facciol shares, “I just found out that I’ll be on console providing support for the FIRST ALL FEMALE SPACEWALK with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina and I can not contain my excitement!!!!”

I just found out that I’ll be on console providing support for the FIRST ALL FEMALE SPACEWALK with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina and I can not contain my excitement!!!! #WomenInSTEM #WomenInEngineering #WomenInSpace

— Kristen Facciol (@kfacciol) March 1, 2019

Christina Koch is leaving Earth on March 14 (Eastern Standard Time) to join Anne McClain who is currently on the International Space Station’s Expedition 58. You can watch this historic event at NASA TV.

These are truly thrilling times for women, especially for those little girls who once dreamed to be an astronaut. Launch your dreams fearlessly out into the Universe, girl—they are well within your reach!

Photos courtesy of NASA on Unsplash.