Meet Christina Koch and Jessica Meir — the two NASA astronauts who are going to walk for hours in space

Oct 17, 2019, 11:31 IST

Credits: International Space Station

Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will go on space walk either on October 17 or October 18 at 7.50 am ET.
Koch and Meir will replace faulty battery part during the time they spend outside the space station.
This is Koch’s fourth space walk and Meir’s first. However, this is the first time two women will venture out of the International Space Station (ISS) without a male counterpart.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is finally set create history. Two NASA Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will go on the first all-female spacewalk on either October 17 or October 18 at 7.50am ET.

Koch and Meir will be replacing a faulty battery part during the six hours they spend outside the International Space Station(ISS).

.@Astro_Jessica talks about the spacewalk assignment process and partnering with @Astro_Christina for the spacewalk… https://t.co/IwoXOZoN9V
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) 1570217081000

Both Koch and Meir are living in NASA's International Space Station - a habitable satellite in low Earth orbit — conducting experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields.

.@Astro_Christina and @Astro_Jessica are scheduled for a spacewalk together on Oct. 21. They recently talked about… https://t.co/9KLweYyLhG
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) 1570216184000

Meet Christina Koch and Jessica Meir — the two NASA astronauts who are going to walk for hours in space

Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are among the 12 women active NASA astronauts. But they are the only two women currently living at the International Space Station with four other male astronauts.

Christina Koch, an electrical engineer, was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013. She joined ISS earlier this year in March. Until now she has participated in four spacewalks.

After she returns, Koch will be the only woman to have done the longest single spaceflight with an expected total of 328 days in space.

She was first inspired to explore space when she visited Kennedy space center near Disneyland with her family. “I don’t remember the time when I didn’t want to be a part of space exploration,” she said.

However, Koch excelled in other areas too. She spent three and a half years of her life in the Arctic or Antarctic.

Jessica Meir is a biologist from Maine. She has spent much of her time mammals and birds living in extreme conditions, even Antarctica. She has even got a PhD in marine biology.

This will be Jessica's second spacewalk. She wanted to become an astronaut since she was five years old. “In first grade we were asked to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. And I drew an astronaut standing on the moon next the flag in a space suit. That kind of image. And I really said it my whole life ever since then,” she said.

Though she was interested in space, her favorite subject is biology. She went to Brown University and majored in the subject.

She participated in NASA’s Extreme Environment Missions Operation where astronauts are trained to how they can survive in space. Koch even lived underwater for a few days.

Jessica took her very first space flight in September 2019 to join the International Space Station.

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