Hazza Al Mansouri hails ‘historic’ first all-female spacewalk

Hazza Al Mansouri has hailed a pair of fellow astronauts for floating into the record books – by embarking on the first all-female spacewalk.

Maj Al Mansouri, who carved out his own place in history by becoming the UAE’s maiden astronaut, marked a ‘special day’ by lauding the achievements of Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who was a crew mate on his own recent journey to the International Space Station.

The Nasa astronauts ventured out of the ISS at about 3.50pm on Friday (UAE time) to replace a power controller that failed during the weekend.

The mission is expected to take several hours to complete.

Maj Al Mansouri said the milestone spacewalk was an ‘historic achievement’.

Today is a special day as it marks the first ever all-female spacewalk. Congratulations to the crew back at the International Space Station, Astronauts @Astro_Jessica and @Astro_Christina on this historic achievement! pic.twitter.com/0Rd5soUOMi

— Hazzaa AlMansoori (@astro_hazzaa) October 18, 2019

The occasion is momentous because, although it is the 221st spacewalk performed by astronauts aboard the ISS, Ms Meir will become only the 15th woman in history to carry out the duty, with Ms Koch having accomplished the task previously.

Nasa has stated its intention to put the first woman on the Moon by 2024.

The National