Two astronauts complete only the sixth all-female spacewalk in history

Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station ventured outside the orbiting laboratory on September 1, 2026, completing what mission coverage described as only the sixth all-female spacewalk in the history of human spaceflight. The excursion, carried out entirely by women working together in the vacuum of space, marked a milestone in a program that has sent well over 600 people into orbit since the dawn of the space age. It also underscored how recent this kind of pairing still is, more than sixty years after the first human spacewalk.

What a Spacewalk Actually Requires

A spacewalk, formally called extravehicular activity, requires astronauts to leave the pressurized safety of a spacecraft and work in a suit that functions as a self-contained, one-person spacecraft, supplying oxygen, regulating temperature, and protecting against the vacuum and radiation of open space. Every movement is planned in advance and rehearsed on the ground, because a torn glove or a lost tool can turn a routine task into a serious emergency within minutes.

The International Space Station has hosted a continuous human presence since November 2000, with rotating crews from multiple countries carrying out research, maintenance, and construction work in low Earth orbit roughly 250 miles above the planet. Spacewalks outside the station are typically used to install new hardware, replace worn components, or repair equipment that cannot be fixed from inside, and they remain among the most physically demanding tasks any astronaut performs.

A Short History of All-Female Spacewalks

Spacewalking crews have historically skewed heavily male, a reflection of the small number of women who trained and flew as astronauts through most of the space program’s history. The first spacewalk conducted entirely by women did not take place until 2019, when NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir stepped outside the station together, an event that drew global attention in part because it had taken so long to happen. Only a handful of all-female excursions, including the one completed on September 1, 2026, have followed since.

That rarity is why each new all-female spacewalk still draws notice even as the underlying work looks much like any other excursion: torque wrenches, tethers, and a meticulously timed list of tasks to complete before the astronauts’ suits run low on consumables. The astronauts involved carried out planned station maintenance during their time outside, following the same rigorous choreography that governs every excursion regardless of who is performing it.

Why More Women Are Flying to the Station

The growing number of women flying to the station reflects a broader shift in astronaut selection over the past two decades, as space agencies in the United States, Europe, Russia, and elsewhere have recruited more balanced astronaut classes than in the program’s earlier decades. NASA’s astronaut corps, for instance, has moved toward selecting classes close to evenly split between men and women, a pipeline that is gradually reshaping who ends up qualified and available for spacewalking assignments.

Even so, the total number of women who have ever performed a spacewalk remains a small fraction of everyone who has done one, since spacewalking assignments depend on training, mission needs, and the makeup of whichever crew happens to be aboard the station at a given time. Each additional all-female excursion adds to a still-short list, and mission planners and astronauts alike have noted that milestones like these are likely to become less remarkable as more women move through the astronaut pipeline in the years ahead.

The Physical Toll of Working in a Vacuum

Spacewalks remain one of the riskiest activities in the entire space program, which is why NASA and its partner agencies schedule them only when necessary and plan every minute of the time outside well in advance. Astronauts breathe pure oxygen for hours before an excursion to purge nitrogen from their bloodstream and avoid decompression sickness, then spend six hours or more outside in suits pressurized far below the station’s cabin. Even a small puncture or a malfunctioning cooling system can force an early return, so mission control tracks vital signs, suit pressure, and consumables continuously throughout the walk.

Training for a spacewalk takes years rather than months. Astronauts rehearse the choreography of each excursion repeatedly in a massive indoor pool, where a full-scale mockup of the station lets them practice tasks underwater in a setting that roughly approximates weightlessness. That preparation is identical regardless of the makeup of the crew performing the walk, and astronauts involved in all-female excursions have generally framed the milestone as a reflection of who has finally had the chance to train and fly, rather than a change in how the work itself gets done.

A Station Approaching Its Final Years

The station’s partner agencies have also used these excursions to highlight how far astronaut recruitment has shifted since the earliest days of human spaceflight, when nearly every astronaut selected by any national program was male. Public interest in a milestone like an all-female spacewalk tends to spike around the event itself, then fade back into the routine cadence of station operations, where maintenance work continues largely unnoticed by anyone outside the space community.

Engineers on the ground still regard each excursion as a success measured by tasks completed and astronauts returned safely inside, regardless of the composition of the crew that performed it. The station itself is approaching the later years of its operational life, with NASA and its international partners currently planning for its eventual retirement later this decade, to be followed by commercially operated successor stations, adding a bit of urgency to the milestones set aboard the outpost while it remains in service.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors.

More from Morning Overview