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A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 19 OctOber 2019
First all-female spacewalking team makes history

By MARCIA DUNN cy Pelosi sent congratu-
Associated Press lations to Koch and Meir
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) "for leaving their mark on
— The world's first all-female history" and tweeted that
spacewalking team made they're an inspiration to
history high above Earth on women and girls across
Friday, replacing a broken America. "Jessica and
part of the International Christina, we are so proud
Space Station's power grid. of you," said Morgan, one
As NASA astronauts Chris- of four astronauts inside.
tina Koch and Jessica He called them his "astrosi-
Meir completed the job sters."
with wrenches, screwdriv- Spacewalking is widely
ers and power-grip tools, considered the most dan-
it marked the first time in a gerous assignment in orbit.
half-century of spacewalk- Italian astronaut Luca Par-
ing that men weren't part mitano, who operated the
of the action. They insisted station's robot arm from in-
they were just doing their side during Friday's space-
job after years of training. In this photo provided by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir exits the International walk, almost drowned
America's first female Space Station on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. in 2013 when his helmet
spacewalker from 35 Associated Press flooded with water from his
years ago, Kathy Sullivan, "What you do is incredible. two young sisters wrote on had to venture out three suit's cooling system.
was delighted. She said You're very brave people," a sign in crayon. A group days earlier to deal with an "Everyone ought to be
it's good to finally have Trump told them as they of middle schoolers held a equipment failure that oc- sending some positive
enough women in the as- wrapped up their space- long sign reading "The sky is curred over the weekend. vibes by way of airwaves
tronaut corps and trained walk. not the limit!!" It was the second such fail- to space for these two top-
for spacewalking for this to Replied Meir: "We don't At the same time, many ure of a battery charger notch spacewalkers," Dy-
happen. want to take too much expressed hope this will be- this year, puzzling engineers son said early in the space-
"We've got qualified wom- credit because there have come routine in the future. and putting a hold on fu- walk. Meir, a marine biolo-
en running the control, run- been many others — fe- Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a ture battery installations for gist making her spacewalk-
ning space centers, com- male spacewalkers — be- three-time spacewalker the solar power system. ing debut, became the
manding the station, com- fore us. This is just the first who looked on from Mission NASA Administrator Jim 228th person in the world to
manding spaceships and time that there have been Control in Houston, added: Bridenstine watched the conduct a spacewalk and
doing spacewalks," Sullivan two women outside at the "Hopefully, this will now be big event unfold from the 15th woman. It was the
told The Associated Press same time ... For us, this is considered normal." Washington headquarters. fourth spacewalk for Koch,
earlier this week. "And golly, really just us doing our job." NASA originally wanted "We have the right people an electrical engineer who
gee whiz, every now and NASA leaders, Girl Scouts to conduct an all-female doing the right job at the is seven months into an
then there's more than one and others also cheered spacewalk last spring, but right time," he said. "They 11-month mission that will
woman in the same place." Koch and Meir on. Parents did not have enough me- are an inspiration to people be the longest ever by a
President Donald Trump also sent in messages of dium-size suits ready to go all over the world including woman. Both are members
put in a congratulatory call thanks and encourage- until summer. Koch and me. And we're very excited of NASA's Astronaut Class of
from the White House to ment via social media. Meir were supposed to in- to get this mission under- 2013, the only one equally
mark "this historic event ... NASA included some in its stall more new batteries in a way." split between women and
truly historic." TV coverage. "Go girls go," spacewalk next week, but Speaker of the House Nan- men. q

Vaping-related illnesses still rising,

though at slower pace

By MIKE STOBBE illnesses.
Associated Press Most who got sick said they vaped prod-
NEW YORK (AP) — Vaping-related illnesses ucts containing THC, the high-inducing in-
in the U.S. are still rising, though at a slightly gredient in marijuana.
slower pace. Investigators say they are increasingly fo-
Health officials of Thursday said there have cused on black-market THC products.
In this Friday, Oct. 4, 2019 photo, a man using an electronic been 1,479 cases and at least 33 deaths in About 1 in 10 of the outbreak cases said
cigarette exhales in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. the mysterious outbreak. they used only nicotine but that percent-
Associated Press The Centers for Disease Control and Pre- age has been falling.
vention has been releasing new case It was 13% last week.
counts each week. In some cases, people who initially claimed
The latest jump — 180 cases — was the they had used only nicotine admitted later
lowest increase since mid-September. they had vaped THC.
But CDC officials say there's no indication Until a cause is pinpointed, the CDC is ad-
that the outbreak is waning. vising Americans to refrain from vaping.
The outbreak appears to have started in Forty-nine states and one U.S. territory
March. Symptoms of the illness include have reported illnesses.
severe shortness of breath, fatigue, and Only Alaska has not seen a case.
chest pain. The vast majority of cases are people in
No single ingredient, electronic cigarette their teens, 20s or early 30s, according to
or vaping device has been linked to all the the CDC.q