The 1st All-Woman Spacewalk: Photos, Videos and Celebratory Tweets

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NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir ventured outside the International Space Station early this morning (Oct. 18) to embark on the first spacewalk in history to be conducted entirely by women. 

The spacewalking duo, who trained together in the same astronaut class, aren't just colleagues — they're best friends, too. And today they're making history together as they work outside the orbiting laboratory on an unplanned spacewalk to repair a battery charge/discharge unit on one of the solar arrays that failed after Koch and NASA astronaut Nick Hague replaced a battery during a spacewalk on Oct. 11. 

We will post updates here throughout the day, with the latest photos, videos and celebratory tweets, so be sure to check back later for the latest news from the first all-women spacewalk!

The 1st All-Female Spacewalk Happening Today. Here's How to Watch It Live

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Jessica Meir (at top left, with back to camera) and Christina Koch begin the first all-female spacewalk outside the Quest airlock of the International Space Station on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019.
Jessica Meir (at top left, with back to camera) and Christina Koch begin the first all-female spacewalk outside the Quest airlock of the International Space Station on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. (Image credit: NASA TV)

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Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.