Astronauts conducting the first ever all-female spacewalk suspended their hours-long attempts to take a congratulatory phone call from President Donald trump on Friday.
In conversation, the astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir got politely poprawienia President about the history of women in space.
“This is the first time a woman has been outside the space station,” said trump, who apparently read the script over the phone. “They are conducting the first ever female spacewalk.”
In fact, the first woman walked in space in 1984? This record belongs to cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya. NASA astronaut Catherine Sullivan became the first American woman to do so in the same year.
“You’re on television all over the world right now, so don’t be nervous,” trump added.
He paused for five seconds and then began to question how one of the astronauts had begun to respond to his initial comments. A presidential aide explained that it was “a four-or five-second delay.”
When the astronauts got a chance to respond, Meir politely corrected President trump.
“We don’t want to take too much credit because there have been many other female astronauts before us,” Meir, who was making her first spacewalk, said. “This is only the first time there have been two women on the street at the same time and it’s really exciting for us. We’ve talked a lot about it here, you know, for us, it’s really just us doing our job. It’s something we’ve been training for six years .”
Space.com shared a video of the call (see below) on his Youtube channel.
Meir continued: “we certainly want to pay tribute to all those who came before us. There was a long line of women scientists, researchers, engineers and astronauts and we followed in their footsteps to get us where we are today. We hope we can inspire everyone, not just women, but everyone who has a dream, who has a big dream and who is willing to work hard to make that dream come true.”
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