NASA and ESA astronauts complete sixth all-female spacewalk, replacing ISS camera and docking reflector
Jessica Meir and Sophie Adenot worked outside the International Space Station for 6 hours and 49 minutes on September 1, successfully replacing critical equipment despite a late spacesuit mobility issue.
What happened
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot conducted the sixth all-female spacewalk on September 1, lasting 6 hours and 49 minutes. Their primary task was replacing the planar deflector (retroreflector) on the Harmony Node 2's forward port, which had become coated with thruster residue and is used for spacecraft navigation during rendezvous and docking. They also replaced the Camera Port 3 high-definition camera on the station's truss. Additional work included Adenot swabbing exterior airlock areas for microorganisms and Meir torquing 46 bolts near the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in preparation for future maintenance. Late in the EVA, Adenot reported losing mobility in her left shoulder joint; Meir diagnosed and freed a cable caught in the insulation, resolving the issue before both returned to the airlock.
Context
This was the 284th spacewalk in support of ISS assembly, maintenance, and upgrades, and the seventh spacewalk of the year. For Meir, this was her seventh spacewalk, giving her 49 hours and 22 minutes of total EVA time and placing her third among all women astronauts at NASA, behind Peggy Whitson (10 spacewalks) and Suni Williams (9). For Adenot, this was her third spacewalk, totaling 19 hours and 42 minutes in vacuum. All-female spacewalks remain rare in spaceflight history, with this being only the sixth occurrence.