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World’s first all-female spacewalk makes history – after wardrobe malfunction botched first attempt
NASA has carried out the world's first all-female spacewalk.
It comes after a botched first attempt that was scrapped after Nasa ran out of spacesuits for female astronauts.
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Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir went outside the International Space Station together and made history.
The spacewalk started just before 1pm UK time.
Their mission was to replace a power controller unit that failed on the weekend.
It was expected to last around 6.5 hours.
US President Donald Trump was fact-checked from space today when he contacted the ISS to congratulate Koch and Meir for completing the all-female spacewalk.
He commended the pair for being the "first ever female spacewalkers".
Meir corrected him to say they were not the first female spacewalkers, as the first woman spacewalk happened in 1984.
She said: We don't want to take too much credit because there have been many other female spacewalkers before.
"This is the first time that there's been two women outside at the same time."
The first woman to perform a spacewalk was the Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, 35 years ago.
A total of 15 women have spacewalked, including Meir and Koch.
Since then, more than 500 people have been into space, but only 55 of these have been women.
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Nasa cancelled its first planned all-female spacewalk back in March.
Koch and and fellow astronaut Anne McClain had been scheduled to carry out the first-of-its-kind mission outside the International Space Station on March 22.
But a wardrobe malfunction meant McClain was replaced by a man on the zero-gravity maintenance job, which involves installing new batteries on the orbiting space lab.
Problems arose during a spacewalk a week earlier led by McClain and fellow astronaut Nick Hague, Nasa said.
McClain realised she needed a different sized spacesuit for Friday's mission, but Nasa only had one in this size.
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"Koch had been scheduled to conduct this spacewalk with astronaut McClain, in what would have been the first all-female spacewalk," Nasa said in a statement at the time.
"However, after consulting with McClain and Hague following the first spacewalk, mission managers decided to adjust the assignments, due in part to spacesuit availability on the station.
"McClain learned during her first spacewalk that a medium-size hard upper torso – essentially the shirt of the spacesuit – fits her best. Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it."
McClain is now back on Earth, and is currently being investigated by Nasa over what may be the first crime in space.
She is alleged to have accessed her estranged wife's private financial records while aboard the ISS.
What is the ISS?
Here's what you need to know about the International Space Station...
- The International Space Station, often abbreviated to ISS, is a large space craft that orbits Earth and houses astronauts who go up there to complete scientific missions
- Many countries worked together to build it and they work together to use it
- It is made up of many pieces, which astronauts had to send up individually on rockets and put together from 1998 to 2000
- Ever since the year 2000, people have lived on the ISS
- Nasa uses the ISS to learn about living and working in space
- It is approximately 250 miles above Earth and orbits around the planet just like a satellite
- Living inside the ISS is said to be like living inside a big house with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym, lots of science labs and a big bay window for viewing Earth
NASA probes ‘first crime in space’ after astronaut ‘accesses estranged wife’s bank account from International Space Station’
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In other news, Nasa recently revealed a stunning photo of the ISS passing in front of a rare "spotless sun".
This stunning photo of a 2,300-foot volcano erupting was captured from space by a Nasa astronaut on the ISS.
And Nasa plans to let tourists visit the ISS from 2020, but each trip could cost around £39million.
Are you excited for this historic moment? Let us know in the comments!
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