NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli are set to make history on Wednesday (Nov. 1) as they conduct the fourth all-female spacewalk. The spacewalk is scheduled to take place at 8:05 a.m. EDT on the International Space Station (ISS) and is expected to last about seven hours.
Viewers can watch the spacewalk live on Space.com or directly through NASA’s coverage, with the broadcast starting at 6:30 a.m. EDT.
During the excursion, O’Hara and Moghbeli will be removing an electronics box known as the Radio Frequency Group, which is part of a communications antenna system. They will also replace one of the 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the station’s solar alpha rotary joint. These bearings enable the solar arrays of the ISS to track the sun.
Originally scheduled to take place on Oct. 20, the spacewalk was delayed due to a leak of ammonia coolant discovered on a backup radiator on Russia’s Nauka module on Oct. 9. To investigate the leak and perform other tasks, two cosmonauts conducted a spacewalk on Oct. 25. Their findings will aid Russia’s federal space agency, Roscosmos, in determining the cause of the leak and finding a solution.
This historic spacewalk will be the fourth of its kind, with the previous three being conducted by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir in 2019 and 2020. However, NASA has emphasized that O’Hara, Moghbeli, Koch, and Meir will not be the only women to participate in spacewalks, as more opportunities will arise in the future.
NASA officials stated earlier this month that Wednesday’s all-female spacewalk “will not be the last as we continue to live and work in space.” The agency is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in space exploration, and this spacewalk serves as a testament to that commitment.