Swedish-American astronaut Jessica Meir will take her first steps in space on Friday, the US space agency NASA announced.

It will also be the first all-female spacewalk, as she will be joined by Christina Koch, who has completed three previous spacewalks. Meir joined the crew of the International Space Station in September.

The two will replace a broken control unit that controls the power transfer from newly installed lithium-ion batteries. The walk is scheduled to begin at 1:50 p.m. Swedish time and the work is expected to take about 5.5 hours. The spacewalk can be followed on NASA's website.

The walk will be Meir's first, and the fourth for classmate Koch.

Source: TT