ESA Astronaut Sophie Adenot Shows EVA Suit Prep Timelapse Ahead Of 100 Per Cent Female Spacewalk

Two astronauts have begun the sixth all-female spacewalk in history, and the first for more than a year. with this footage showing them preparing for it.

The excursion was set to begin outside the International Space Station at about 8.30am eastern time on Tuesday, 1st September, with the timelapse footage showing the lengthy preparation procedure to get the EVA suits ready.

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir are working together on the walk, which is expected to last around six and a half hours.

It is the sixth all-female spacewalk since the station began operating and the first since May last year.

Adenot said in a post beforehand: "This time it will be an entirely female EVA, and I am delighted to share this adventure with Jessica. It will be her seventh spacewalk."

She noted it was her own third outing in fifteen days, invoking the French saying that things come in threes.

The walk takes Meir to seven, putting her third among NASA's women behind Peggy Whitson and Suni Williams.

She took part in the first three all-female spacewalks, all of them alongside Christina Koch in 2019 and 2020.

Adenot became the first French woman to walk in space on 18th August and completed a second outing a week later.

The pair are replacing a retroreflector on the forward port of the station's Harmony module, which helps visiting spacecraft navigate as they approach and dock.

They are also fitting jumper cables for the data relay systems and replacing a high-definition camera on the station's truss.

Another task is preparing the radiator of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics experiment mounted outside the station, for future maintenance.

Adenot is designated crew member one and is wearing the suit with red stripes, with Meir in an unmarked suit as crew member two.

The excursion is logged as US spacewalk 99 and the 284th in support of the station since 1998.

(Joe Golder/Clipzilla/NX)