NASA has announced that the first ever all-female spacewalk is scheduled to take place this Friday (18th October 2019).
The spacewalk will be completed by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, during which they will replace a power controller on the outside of the International Space Station.
It’s a huge milestone for women in the aeronautical industry and STEM in general. Of the 227 people who have completed a spacewalk, only 14 to date have been women.
Image: NASA
Speaking about the significance of the spacewalk, Christina Koch said: “In the end, I do think it’s important because of the historical nature of what we’re doing and in the past, women haven’t always been at the table.”
Jessica Meir added, “What we’re doing now shows all the work that went in decades prior. All the women that worked to get us where we are today. I think the nice thing for us is we don’t even really think about it on a daily basis. It’s just normal. We’re part of the team."
Engineering Your Future - Women in Engineering
At Millbank we think it's vitally important to the engineering industries that future generations are encouraged to explore STEM careers.
Over the coming months we are attending a number of "Engineering Your Future" events aimed at helping students learn about the best career path into STEM for them, using our unique perspective of hiring and career progression.
There is still a disproportionate shortage of female engineers especially, so it's fantastic to see this milestone will finally take place.
