NASA's Christina Cork and Jessica Mare astronauts, who are staying at the International Space Station (ISS), carried out an extravehicular activity on the 18th. This is the first ever “space swimming” for women only.
The two went out of the ISS for 7 hours and 17 minutes and exchanged parts for controlling the failed photovoltaic power generation system.
According to AP, 228 people, including the first Mare, who have been outboard, have so far been involved in extravehicular activities. Among them, there are only 15 women since the former Soviet astronaut in 1984. So far, women's extravehicular activities have been carried out with male aviators.
On the 18th, US President Trump communicated with two people who were outboarding and praised them as “historic. “We don't want to be praised so much. Many women are swimming in space before us. Until we did their job,” replied.
A female-only spacewalk was planned for March, but it was postponed because two spacesuits of the appropriate size were not worn. It was criticized that space development was a manifestation of sex discrimination that had been considered by men. The US plans to send a woman to the moon for the first time in the manned lunar landing in 2024. (Washington = Keisuke Katori)