Extra-vehicular activity

Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth and outside of his or her spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth (a spacewalk) but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon (a moonwalk). In the later lunar landing missions the command module pilot did an EVA to retrieve film canisters on the return trip.

EVA Milestones

• The first EVA was carried out by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov on March 18, 1965 from the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.
• The first woman to perform an EVA was Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya on July 25, 1984 while aboard the Salyut 7 space station.
• The first EVA by an American astronaut was made on 1965 June 3 by Edward White during the Gemini 4 mission. The first American woman to make an EVA was Kathryn D. Sullivan, who stepped into space on 1984 October 11 during Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-G.
• The first EVA by a non-Soviet, non-American astronaut was made on 1988 December 9 by Jean-Loup Chrétien of France during a three-week stay on the Mir space station.
• The first EVA that was a moonwalk rather than a spacewalk was made by American astronaut Neil Armstrong on 1969 July 20 when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle landed on the Moon. He was joined by crewmate Buzz Aldrin, and their EVA lasted 2 hours and 32 minutes.
• The first untethered spacewalk was by American astronaut Bruce McCandless on 1984 February 7, during Challenger mission STS-41-B. He was subsequently joined by astronaut Robert L. Stewart during the 5 hour 55 minute spacewalk.
• The first EVA to perform an in-flight repair of the Space Shuttle was by American astronaut Steve Robinson on August 3, 2005, during "return to flight" mission STS-114. Robinson was sent to remove two protruding gap fillers on the Space Shuttle Discovery's heat shield, after engineers determined they might pose a danger upon re-entry. Robinson successfully removed the loose material while the Discovery was docked to the International Space Station.