NASA -- The all-women female spacewalk was supposed to make history but the authorities of NASA had to cancel it. Anne McClain and Christina Koch, both NASA astronauts were meant to be in that spacewalk together, but Mclain won't be able to join the scheduled walk because of the unavailability of a spacesuit. Instead, Nick Hague will be joining Koch in replacement of McClain.
On Monday, March 25th, 2019, NASA said that the only available spacesuit at the space station is a medium size. However, they clarified that they had more than one available medium spacesuit aboard, but in order to follow the schedule in place, they saw it is better to reconfigure the person to wear the spacesuit than to change space suit sizes the last minute.
The astronauts were briefed to complete a three-series spacewalk on the International Space Station. The goal was to complete the walk and make a report of the status as soon as they can. Hague and McClain conducted the first of the three series on March 22, 2019. McClain and Koch were supposed to go out on the second of the series together on Friday to continue the work. They were to install a set of powerful lithium-ion batteries for a pair of the station's solar arrays.
"However, after the consultation with Hague and McClain following the first spacewalk, the mission managers decided to make a last minute adjustment, due to the lack of the right size of spacesuit available at the station," according to the NASA statement. "McClain learned that a medium-size hard upper torso is the size that fits her best. She knew about this during her first spacewalk. However, because there will only be one medium-sized suit that will be made available on Friday, Koch is going to have to wear it."
Both Koch and McClain are already making history as being the 13th and 14th women to join a spacewalk. Not everyone is given that opportunity. They were part of the astronaut class of 2013. Half the class was women and it was one of the biggest applications that NASA has ever received. There were about 6,100 of them who aspired to be astronauts and two women members of the class are now out there making a difference in space studies.
As for the scheduled third spacewalk in the series, McClain is to be joined by David Saint-Jacques, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut. The tentative schedule of their deployment is on April 8. The NASA report shows that the spacewalk will last for about seven hours.
Spacewalks are conducted for a number of reasons and one of them is to conduct work outside the spacecraft. The first all-women spacewalk may not have happened any time soon, but it doesn't mean that it won't happen ever. The doors have been opened to women and it will always bring in more opportunities to make a difference in the world.
