Nasa cancels first all-women spacewalk because there aren’t enough well-fitting suits
- Early this month, Nasa announced that Christina Koch and Anne McClain would take part in the first-of-its kind mission on March 29
- But Nasa said its plans had changed, ‘in part’ due to a shortage of outerwear
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The US space agency Nasa has scrapped a planned historic spacewalk by two women astronauts, citing a lack of available spacesuits that would fit them at the International Space Station.
Christina Koch will now perform tasks in space Friday with fellow American Nick Hague – instead of Anne McClain as originally planned.
Had Koch and McClain done their spacewalk together, it would have been the first ever by two women astronauts.
Until now, male-only or mixed male-female teams had conducted spacewalk since the space station was assembled in 1998 – 214 spacewalks until now.
McClain worked outside the station last week – with Hague – when she realised that a “medium”-sized upper half of her spacesuit fit her better.
“Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it,” Nasa explained.
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The spacesuits aboard the ISS are in fact assemblies of several parts put together as best adapted to each astronaut’s body, explained Brandi Dean, spokeswoman of the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas where American astronauts are based.
She said two upper parts in each of the three available spacesuit sizes are currently held at the ISS: medium, large and extra large.
When McClain took part in a spacewalk last week, she became the 13th woman to do so, Nasa says; Koch will be the 14th.
The first woman to perform a spacewalk was the Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, 35 years ago. More than 500 people have been into space, but only 11 per cent have been women, Reuters reported. But Koch and McClain were both part of Nasa’s 2013 class, which was half female.
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Fitting for spacesuits is a tricky business, according to Space.com, since microgravity makes you taller.
McClain tweeted this month that she was almost 5cm taller than when she launched.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
