Helmet-cam footage shows Earth during first all-female spacewalk
Flight engineers Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history after completing the first spacewalk by an all-woman team.
Monday 21 October 2019 11:09, UK
A head-mounted camera has captured the Earth from the International Space Station during the first all-female spacewalk.
Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history on Friday when they ventured into the vacuum of space.
The flight engineers accomplished the milestone during a mission to swap faulty batteries on the station's exterior in a spacewalk that lasted more than seven hours.
Footage from Ms Meir's helmet-mounted camera has now been revealed, capturing the blue globe of the Earth as she completed her work.
Describing the feeling of viewing Earth from space, fellow NASA astronaut Anne McClain said it's like the "opposite of claustrophobia".
She said: "There is no picture or words that can describe or prepare you for the moment you look out at the Earth and the space station during an EVA [spacewalk].
"The only thing that separates these spacewalkers from the vacuum of space is their visor right in front of their face which provides this amazing view".
She continued: "If there was a word for the opposite of claustrophobia, that's kind of how you feel.
"It's the most infinite void that you can possibly imagine, and what is really interesting about it is that Earth is actually the closest thing to you - so looking at Earth you feel very close and connected to Earth."
The first all-female spacewalk was originally scheduled to take place in March but was cancelled due to spacesuit availability on the International Space Station (ISS).
After the historic mission was completed, US President Donald Trump congratulated the women by calling them and asking: "This is President Donald Trump, do you hear me?"
He also asked them what they would like to tell young women listening in, to which they responded: "We don't want to take too much credit as there have been many female spacewalkers before us...
"We are really just doing our job."
However they said they recognised it as an "historic achievement".
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi also congratulated the women for "leaving their mark on history".
Before last week's repair mission, 227 astronauts and cosmonauts had completed a spacewalk, but only 14 had been women - and all of those had worked alongside a male astronaut.
Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to perform a spacewalk, officially known as an EVA (Extravehicular Activity), on 25 July 1984.