Meng attends historic all-female  
 space walk at NASA headquarters 
 BY BILL PARRY 
 When  NASA  astronauts  Jessic  
 Meir  and Christina Koch made history  
 last  week  by  conducting  the  
 first  all-female  space  walk  outside  
 the  International  Space  Station,  
 Congresswoman  Grace  Meng  had  a  
 front  row seat watching  it unfold at  
 NASA’s Space Operations Center  in  
 Washington, D.C. 
 Koch and Meir, who both grew up  
 as members  of  the Girl  Scouts,  successfully  
 completed their mission to  
 replace  a  faulty  battery  charger  in  
 seven hours and 17 minutes. 
 “Bravo to our fearless Astronauts  
 Koch and Meir for proving to all the  
 women  and  girls  around  the  world  
 that  nothing  is  impossible,  even  in  
 space,”  Meng  said.  “They  are  an  
 inspiration  for  young  women  and  
 girls  and  we  should  celebrate  their  
 achievement.” 
 Meng  watched  the  proceedings  
 with several other members of Congress  
 and NASA Administrator Jim  
 Bridenstine. During a recent NASA  
 press  conference,  Meir  and  Koch  
 discussed  the  influence  their  space  
 walk would have on girls. 
 “There are a lot of people that derive  
 motivation  from  inspiring  stories  
 from people that look like them  
 and I think it’s an important aspect  
 of the story to tell,” Koch said. 
 The two had trained together for  
 six years. 
 “What we’re doing now shows all  
 the work that went in for the decades  
 prior, all  of  the women that worked  
 to get us where we are  today,” Meir  
 said.  “I  think  the  nice  thing  for  us  
 is we  don’t  even  really  think  about  
 it  on  a  daily  basis,  it’s  just normal.  
 We’re  part  of  a  team,  we’re  doing  
 this work as an efficient team working  
 together with everybody else, so  
 it’s  really nice  to  see how far we’ve  
 come.” 
 This was the fourth space walk of  
 Koch’s career and the first for Meir. 
 “Today’s  event  demonstrates  no  
 ceiling  can  keep  a  woman  down,”  
 Congresswoman Grace Meng watches history in the making as Astronauts Christina Koch  
 and Jessica Meir conduct the first all-female spacewalk.  Courtesy of Meng’s offi ce 
 Meng  said.  “My  hope  is  that  this  
 historic moment in our history will  
 build confidence in girls around the  
 world  to  dream  big.  I  can’t  wait  to  
 see  what  else  women  and  girls  can  
 achieve in space.” 
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