Nasa astronauts complete first all-women spacewalk

Nasa astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir have made history by completing the first ever all-female spacewalk.

They spent seven hours outside the International Space Station (ISS) replacing a failed power control unit.

Ms Koch had already carried out four spacewalks but it was the first such mission for Ms Meir, who became the 15th woman to walk in space, Nasa said. US President Donald Trump congratulated them in a video call.

"You are very brave, brilliant women," he told them as they carried out the spacewalk. Ms Koch, an electrical engineer, and Ms Meir, who has a doctorate in marine biology, stepped outside in their Nasa spacesuits at 11:38 GMT (07:38 EDT) on Friday. They made their way to a location called the Port 6 truss structure to replace the battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU).

They then returned to the airlock with the failed part which will subsequently be loaded on to the next SpaceX Dragon resupply ship for inspection on Earth.

Back on Earth, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris tweeted that the spacewalk was "more than historic".

Source: BBC

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