NASA’s Jessica Meir and the ESA’s Sophie Adenot will take part in a Sept. 1 spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
For the first time in more than a year, two astronauts will conduct an all-female spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
NASA’s Jessica Meir and the European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot are due to suit up and enter the vacuum of space for more than six hours. The spacewalk is the fourth in a recent slew of spacewalks since August as NASA looks to make a series of upgrades to the iconic, albeit aging, orbital outpost.
Meir and Adenot will be part of the first spacewalk with just women since two female NASA astronauts last exited the space station together in May 2025.
Interested in watching the upcoming spacewalk, expected to last for several hours Tuesday, Sept. 1? NASA and its commercial partners like Amazon will provide plenty of ways to ensure you can keep up with the cosmic action as it unfolds in real time.
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Here’s everything to know about the upcoming spacewalk, and how you can watch it live.
What is the International Space Station?
The International Space Station has been stationed in low-Earth orbit for more than 25 years, typically about 260 miles high, where it has been home to astronauts from all over the world. Throughout its lifespan, the station has served as a test bed for scientific research in microgravity and has in years past opened itself up to private commercial missions.
The orbital laboratory is operated through a global partnership of space agencies, including NASA, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
More than 290 spacefarers from 26 countries have visited the International Space Station, including 173 from the United States alone, according to NASA.
What is a spacewalk? How often do astronauts exit ISS?
A spacewalk, often called extra-vehicular activity in space industry parlance, refers to any activity an astronaut undertakes outside of a space station or spacecraft. Spacewalks require suiting up in specialized suits and exposing oneself to the vacuum of outer space.
When is the next spacewalk?
2 astronauts to conduct spacewalk today. One of them will make history
Watch live as NASA astronaut Anil Menon and the European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot conduct a spacewalk Aug. 18, 2026.
The next spacewalk is set for Tuesday, Sept. 1, with two astronauts due to exit the International Space Station about 8:30 a.m. ET, according to NASA. The operation is expected to last less than seven hours.
The spacewalk follows three that took place in August.
How to watch NASA coverage of spacewalk on YouTube, Netflix, more
NASA’s live coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 7 a.m. ET Sept. 1 and will be available to stream on the agency’s free NASA+ app, as well Amazon Prime and YouTube. Netflix, which provided coverage of a previous spacewalk in July, will not host a livestream this time on its platform.
Livestream: Watch NASA spacewalk live
Spacewalk is 6th with Americans of 2026. What astronauts are going?
The upcoming spacewalk will be the seventh of 2026 and the sixth this year featuring at least one U.S. astronaut. The most recent spacewalk occurred Aug. 25, when NASA’s Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency exited the space station.
Adenot, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, will be making her third spacewalk in a row after she became the fifth French astronaut to conduct a spacewalk on Aug. 18, and the first woman from France, according to the ESA.
She’ll be joined by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, a Maine native making her seventh ever spacewalk.
Known as U.S. spacewalk 99, the venture will be the 99th of its kind with NASA astronauts and the 284th in the International Space Station’s history.
Women to make rare all-female spacewalk
When Meir and Adenot venture outside the space station, it will be on just the sixth-ever spacewalk exclusively featuring women.
NASA’s Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain were the most recent astronauts to take part in an all-female spacewalk in May 2025 when they were at the ISS as part of the Crew-10 mission.
In fact, Meir herself made history in 2019 when she was part of the first-ever spacewalk with just women, according to NASA. The astronaut who joined her for the milestone? None other than Christina Koch, who made history again in April when she became the first woman to fly near the moon during the Artemis II mission.
What will Meir, Adenot be doing during the spacewalk?
Meir and Adenot’s task will be to replace a spacecraft navigational aid, prepare a particle detector for future upgrades, and install jumper cables to boost data-relay systems, NASA said.
How can you tell the astronauts apart?
Meir will be stationed in Canada’s 56-foot-long Canadarm2 robotic arm, while Adenot will be tethered to the space station.
What astronauts are on the International Space Station?
Seven astronauts who are part of Expedition 75 are living and working aboard the International Space Station.
That includes four people who are part of the Crew-12 mission that docked in mid-February: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, as well as the European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The Crew-12 contingent are due to depart in September following the arrival of Crew-13.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon arrived in mid-July at the space station with Russians Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina on a Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft for an eight-month mission.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com