Mission Achieved
American astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir have made history. On October 18, they completed the first-ever all-female spacewalk
spacewalk
INHAUSCREATIVE/GETTY IMAGES
a period of time that an astronaut spends outside a spacecraft, floating in space
(noun)
The astronaut's spacewalk lasted a little more than two hours.
. The two floated outside the International Space Station (ISS). They repaired part of its power grid
grid
MORI HODEL—EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES
a network of electrical equipment and wires that supplies electricity to an area
(noun)
The flood damaged the electrical grid, and many homes lost power.
.
The spacewalk lasted seven hours and 17 minutes. People around the world watched NASA’s livestream of the event.
“We don’t want to take too much credit because there have been many others—female spacewalkers—before us,” Meir said on a call with President Donald Trump. He called the ISS to congratulate the women. “This is really just doing our job,” Meir added.
The world’s first spacewalk took place in 1965. Since then, there have been 227 spacewalkers. Only 15 of them have been women.
An all-female spacewalk was originally scheduled for March. But there were not enough medium-sized suits. So that walk was done by a male and a female astronaut instead.
Stop and Think! Why did TIME for Kids choose to cover this story? What makes it newsworthy? Does Meir seem to view the spacewalk as newsworthy? Why or why not?
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