By Cecilia Fiorindo '21
October 18th was a regular day of early fall for mostof us, with the busy streets of New York City filled with commuters, tourists, and students like us. What some of us did not know was that, just above our heads, miles from our city, the first all-women spacewalk in history occurred. This was the 221st spacewalk ever, but the first one formed by a fierce team of talented women, Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, who contributed to repairing the power system of their station, spending about 7 hours in space.
But how can a simple power repair have so much significance? As Koch herself stated, “there are a lot of people who derive motivation from inspiring stories of people who look like them, and I think it’s an important story to tell.”
For a long time after the first experiences in space in the 20th century, women could only watch astronauts from the sidelines, often contributing to space missions without receiving recognition; examples are Margaret Hamilton, the lead Apollo flight software designer, and Katherine Johnson, the third African American woman to earn a PhD in Mathematics who aided in numerous space missions.
If you are thinking, "I've never heard these names," you are not alone. Women
and other marginalized groups have been discriminated against and not allowed to participate in space missions for decades.
We are now beginning to break the glass ceiling for women in science, and everywhere. A female astronaut will travel to the Moon by 2024, and the explorations to Mars will also see numerous women involved. There are big plans for the future of space missions, and it finally seems like women are being allowed to sit at the table. But there is still so much to do, to create more tables that are enriched by diversity and different perspectives.
The first all-women spacewalk marked a true historical milestone, a story that will make
millions of girls around the world dream of wearing an astronaut suit.
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