Samantha Christoforetti will become the first female European astronaut to conduct a spacewalk. She is on the International Space Station (ISS).
European Space Agency’s (ESA) astronaut Samantha Christoforetti is all set to make history. She is just a few hours from becoming the first female European astronaut to conduct a spacewalk. According to the European Space Agency, Christoforetti will step out of the International Space Station (ISS) for her debut spacewalk, also called Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) along with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev today. They will be outside the International Space Station for up to seven hours. As reported by Space.com, the spacewalk is expected to begin around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). Stargazers can watch live streaming of the same at NASA’s YouTube channel or directly at NASA’s website.
Spacewalks from the Russian side of the space station will be conducted in Russian, but live interpretation to English will also be provided. If the spacewalk is successful, this will be the second time Cristoforetti makes history in recent months. Previously she created history by becoming the first one to use TikTok on the ISS. She has garnered over half a million followers since her first post in May.
According to ESA, the astronauts will be performing a diverse set of scheduled activities to tackle for the work session from installing platforms and workstation adapter hardware to the newest ISS laboratory, Nauka. Additionally, 10 nanosatellites will also be deployed to gather radio electronics data.
Further, they will also prepare the European Robotic Arm for operational use. The crew shared that they “will move its external control panel, work on insulation and install a temporary adapter point for the robotic arm.” Cristoforetti will spend some time ensuring “the window shield on the arm’s camera unit is clear enough to allow a laser light to guide the arm for grappling and moving around.” The arm is 37 feet (11.3 meters) long and is designed to be used by cosmonauts.
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