History was made this month when 2 female astronauts, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, embarked on NASA’s first all-women space walk.
What is the Artemis Program?
Artemis is NASA’s new lunar exploration program which plans to send the first women and next man
on the Moon in 2024.
The first missions to the Moon were achieved by NASA, and landing the first man on the Moon in
1969. That program was dubbed the Apollo program. Fun Fact! If you are familiar with Greek
mythology, you will know that Apollo is known as the Sun god. Artemis was Apollo’s twin sister and
known as the Moon goddess.
The all-women spacewalk was set to take place months prior, in March 2019. After experiencing the
spacesuit in flight (not on Earth), Christina Koch and Anne McClain came to realize that plans would
have to be scrapped as the large spacesuit size was not feasible to continue the spacewalk. A
proper spacesuit fit is required for astronauts to prevent bodily harm and excessive fatigue.
Unfortunately, there were also no medium sizes available at the time.
This incident has pushed for NASA to take action. NASA has unveiled two new spacesuits, designed
for the Artemis program.
“This new spacesuit will fit all of our astronauts when we go to the moon,”
Jim Bridenstine, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
All in all, the mission was successful. Both Koch and Meir were able to replace a failed power control
unit in an operation that lasted over seven hours. This is a great step for women in space and in
STEM. We’ll be keeping an eye out in 2024!
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