NASA completes its fourth all-female EVA

Recently astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara completed NASA's fourth all-female spacewalk aboard the International Space Station. Jasmin Moghbeli wore the spacesuit with red stripes for the spacewalk with Loral O'Hara wearing the unmarked spacesuit. Both astronauts spent six hours and forty-two minutes outside of the International Space Station.

The extravehicular activity outside of the International Space Station completed two objectives; removal of a 'handling bar fixture', and replacing one of twelve 'trundle bearing assemblies' on one of the solar alpha rotary joints. Mission Control on the ground told the spacewalking duo and the rest of the station crew that the solar array was functioning well after the bearing replacement by Moghbeli and O'Hara. The spacewalking duo also removed a handling fixture ahead of future installation for a roll-out solar array that is likely to be installed during a future extravehicular activity.

Mission Control had also planned for the removal and stowage of a communications electronics box during the extravehicular activity but was unable to happen due to a lack of time. A tool bag was also reportedly lost during the spacewalk with Mission Control spotting it with external station cameras. After controllers analyzed the bag's trajectory it was determined that the risk of the bag recontacting the International Space Station was low with no action currently required.

Jasmin Moghbeli is part of the Crew-7 crew which launched on the 26th of August 2023 and is expected to return to Earth early in 2024. The Crew-7 crew consists of; Konstantin Borisov (Roscosmos), Andreas Mogensen (European Space Agency), Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Satoshi Furukawa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). Crew-7 is also the first commercial crew mission to send three international partners to the International Space Station.

Loral O'Hara is part of the Soyuz MS-24 crew which launched on September the 15th 2023 and is expected to return to Earth in March of 2024. The Soyuz MS-24 crew consists of; Loral O'Hara (NASA), Oleg Kononenko (Roscosmos), and Nikolay Chub (Roscosmos). Interestingly Kononenko and Chub will be staying onboard the International Space Station for a year before returning to Earth.