IT’S UN-SUITABLE!
Poorly fitting togs KO 1st all-female spacewalk
The geniuses who gave us “one small step for man” have only one medium space suit for women ready to go.
And so 50 years after the moon landing, another NASA bid to make history will be delayed.
The agency was slated to have the first all-female spacewalk this week, but those plans are now on the back burner — and ill-fitting space suits are partly to blame.
The mission would have marked the first of its kind, as prior ones had either been all-male or male-female.
A wrench was thrown into the landmark plans Monday when NASA announced it would only be able to provide a correctly sized space suit top for one woman in time for Friday’s scheduled walk.
Of the two women who were meant to embark on the walk, one, Anne McClain, is having to forgo her spot. A male astronaut will be going in her place.
After making a spacewalk last week, McClain, who at first took no issue wearing a large suit, discovered the medium fit her better and would be the best option on her mission. As Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokeswoman, explained Monday, “In this case, it’s easier (and faster!) to change spacewalkers than reconfigure the space suit.”
The original plans for the spacewalk were announced by NASA this month. The mission, which was expected to last about seven hours, intended for McClain and fellow astronaut Christina Koch to replace batteries on the outside of the International Space Station. The women were both part of NASA’s 2013 class, one that was 50% female.
The change in plans caused many to launch their gripes in cyberspace.
Emily Lakdawwalla, a senior editor at the Planetary Society, tweeted, “I’m suuper [sic] disappointed about the all-woman spacewalk not happening as scheduled this Friday but I’m also super supportive of astronauts having the authority to say ‘I would be safer using a different piece of equipment.’ An all-woman spacewalk WILL eventually happen.”
Though the main issue appears to be the space suit, NASA said in a press release Monday, the change came about “in part” because of the shortage.
The statement explained that only one top — which McClain needs — can be constructed by Friday, but Koch will be the recipient. In a tweet Tuesday, NASA explained, “We’ve seen your tweets about space suit availability for Friday’s spacewalk. To clarify, we have more than one medium-size space suit torso aboard, but to stay on schedule with @Space_Station upgrades, it’s safer and faster to change spacewalker assignments than reconfigure space suits.”
McClain last week became the the 13th woman to walk in space. Koch’s Friday mission will make her the 14th.
McClain is “tentatively scheduled” to complete another spacewalk April 8, but with male colleagues.
Microgravity has the propensity to make people taller, making space suit fittings difficult. In a tweet this month, McClain exclaimed, “I am 2 inches taller than when I launched!”
This year marks 35 years since Soviet Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space.