Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will venture outside the International Space Station late this week to replace a power controller that failed during the weekend. The spacewalk, the first ever that will be conducted by two women, is planned for Thursday or Friday.
Station managers decided to postpone previously planned spacewalks that had been set to install new batteries this week and next in order to replace the faulty power unit, called a Battery Charge/Discharge Unit (BCDU). The station’s overall power supply, which is fed by four sets of batteries and solar arrays, remains sufficient for all operations, and the failed unit has no impact on the crew’s safety or ongoing laboratory experiments. However, the failed power unit does prevent a new lithium-ion battery installed earlier this month from providing additional station power.
The battery charge/discharge units regulate the amount of charge put into the batteries that collect energy from the station’s solar arrays to power station systems during periods when the complex orbits during nighttime passes around the Earth. Two other charge/discharge units on the affected 2B power channel did activate as planned and are providing power to station systems.
Good luck ladies! So proud to see women in space walk!
Good luck ladies and congratulations to Mainer Jessica Meir from Damariscotta Maine
Bonne chance mesdames. Je suis ravie de voir les femmes marchent dans espace. Bravo
Congratulations and I will be praying for your safety and that everything goes as planned.
woww
Good Luck to both of you on your EVA to show that Women Do Have the Right Stuff in Space
Good luck ladies…OKC pulling for you and sooo proud of you ladies..
Good luck Ladies!!
Fabulous!
Good luck to you two awesome astronauts. Profound thanks and appreciation for your courage, commitment, and expertise, and for the enormous effort it took to prepare for this inspiring journey.
Keep Calm and go a’head, lucky ladies! Greetings from Brazil!
Good luck ladies, wish I could be up there with you. The last time I was at Canaveral was way back in 1972 when I worked on a problem with the CSAR Radar built by. RCA on Apollo 17. It was the Coherent Synthetic Array Radar that did sub-surface mapping while Cernan was in orbit around the moon. My fingerprints are on the orbiting module outside the radar compartment. Enjoy yourselves. John Levandowski
Omg. Congatulations.
This is great carrer and life.
Posotive energies from Brazil.
Paving the way for generations of females interested in becoming an astronaut. Way to go ladies! We are so proud of you and this major milestone. Stay safe and know America is watching!
You 2 have this
You ladies rock! Will be watching from Costa Rica. #moregirlsinspace
Hope the operation goes we’ll and is completely trouble free.
Wishing you the very best.
This wil be again a wonderful time for watching the Nasa-live coverage…….enjoy the ‘trip’……Jessica and Christina……..
Artemis mission is being prepped for landing on luna on first woman,next man basis by 2024. Beforehand two women are spacewalking jointly for the first time outside of ISS,is, no doubt, a masterpiece. Pray for their safe operation.
All the best! 🙂 Congratulations. What an accomplishment.
Amazing – so great to have wonderful people like you on duty on the ISS!
Greetings and lot’s of good luck from the Netherlands
You got this❤️
You are an inspiration to future generations and astronauts. God bless you.
Good luck Jessica and Christina. We will pray for you from Sweden and wish you all the best .
God speed, Christina & Jessica on your EVA. We’ll be watching; don’t forget to wave! (virtual hugs from Teacher in Space candidate & wife)
This is so incredible! My six year old has asked to get up early to see this! So special that we can share it together. THank you for making this happen! What a lesson for our kids to push through and know that anything is possible for them!!
So inspiring for women on our beautiful planet.
Girl power in space,
Show the world that girls can do anything they want and achieve amazing heights, there are no barriers just new frontiers for our daughters. Thank you and we will be watching
So awesome!! My little girls will be watching you!
Congrats & all the best in your operation Christina & Jessica. Will be praying for your and watching from Louisiana, USA. Amazing accomplishment….Kudos to you both!
Lyndsey
GOOD LUCK Christina and JessicaYou are doing a great jobRachel
Amazing!❤
Thank you ladies. Thank you for… well… just being you.
Inspirational. Good luck and enjoy the view!
Good Luck Jessica and Christina from a proud Swede
All of Caribou, “the county” and Maine will be watching your mission today. Be careful, do great work and remember to take a moment to enjoy the view.
Great role models for young girls!! Praying all goes well!
Good Luck and all the best
You are embarking on my dreams! Good luck! God Bless!
Incredibly proud and honored to be able to watch this moment live!! Ladies, you’ve got this!! There are no words that adequately describe how inspirational your careers have been for millions! God Speed! Way to represent women of STEM careers!!
Good floating in that final frontier.
Good luck! It s amazing! You are making history! All the best from Hong Kong!
TRULY REMARKABLE & definitely made of The Right Stuff!! <3 And what a spectacular way to spend your Friday (Sat up there?? Hehe!!)!! Many blessings & great luck on your repair mission!!
Thank you! The station crew sets their space clocks to GMT, or Greenwich Mean Time. So it is still Friday on the space station. 🙂
My (7) Granddaughters and I are proud of these Astronauts. Be Safe.
Congratulations, Christina and Jessica! Watching and praying for all involved from Iowa, USA. Herstory in the making! You got this!
Way to step up to the plate ladies! Your accomplishments not only go down in the books, but in the hearts and minds of all dream chasers! Best of energy Christina and Jessica , we’re cheering for you from Port Hueneme, California. #YesSheCan #YesSheDid #LadyLeaders4Life.
So proud of you two ladies for this historic moment! Sending prayers from Colorado! 🙂
Really amazing. God bless you girls! You are wonderful.
Yes! History in the making! Go NASA ladies, you are awesome!
Did you see me waving. 🙂
My family and I were sitting outside in Perth tonight and were lucky enough to see the ISS shining bright, passing nearly directly overhead. It was wonderful to think of this historic space walk being underway. Congratulations.
very well. I’m tracking everything over the internet. Fantastic. Good luck girls
Sending prayers for you both. You are showing little girls that they can accomplish anything they put their mind to. Hope you have a safe trip home.
Happy to see astronauts, Jessica and Christina, making history! Nice to be alive during this historic moment. This is just the beginning of many more firsts! God Bless them.
Massallah good I am proud of both of you it’s also my dream.
Yes ladies! We’re rooting for you. Be safe *hearts
what is it like in space?
Astronaut Anne McClain described her impressions from when she performed a pair of spacewalks earlier this year… https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1185253043798831105
that looks fun!
Bravo Ladies!! You’re making history for us all. Be safe. God Bless.
Be inspired!
This is inspiring, in elementary school, we watched the space shuttle. My daughter wants to be an astronaut, and this is inspiring to see that her dreams may one day come true.
Good luck ladies and have a prosperous installation as you walk in space. Waiting to see you eagerly.
Sending “best of luck “wishes for a prosperous installation! Inspired !