Astronaut Anne McClain joins all-female spacewalk — 6 years after missing out over suit sizing issue

An astronaut who missed out on the first all-female spacewalk because of a spacesuit sizing issue got her chance six years later on Thursday.  

NASA’s Anne McClain emerged from the International Space Station alongside Nichole Ayers. Both military officers and pilots, they launched to the orbiting lab in March to replace NASA’s two stuck astronauts, who are now back home.

Minutes before floating out, McClain noticed strands of string on the index finger of her right glove. Mission Control briefly delayed the start of the spacewalk to make sure her glove was safe.

During their spacewalk, the pair will prepare the space station for another new set of solar panels and move an antenna on the 260-mile-high complex.

The space station had to be raised into a slightly higher orbit Wednesday evening to avoid space junk: part of a 20-year-old Chinese rocket.

The first spacewalk was conducted in 1965, by Russian cosmonaut Alexey Leonov. Nearly 20 years later, cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space during a solo outing in 1984. 

NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. female spacewalker later that same year. Spacewalks with more than one astronaut were conducted with only men or with mixed-gender teams until 2019, when NASA conducted the first all-female spacewalk. 

McClain, an Army colonel and helicopter pilot, was set to take part in that 2019 spacewalk, but there weren’t enough medium-size suits after she requested her size be changed following another outing. The spacewalk was delayed and later conducted by Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.  

McClain and Ayers’ spacewalk marked the fifth all-female outing in 60 years. It was McClain’s third spacewalk and Ayers’ first. 

Men still outnumber women in NASA’s astronaut corps. Of NASA’s 47 active astronauts, 20 are women. Of the seven astronauts currently living at the space station, McClain and Ayers, an Air Force major and former fighter pilot, are the only women. 

Koch will soon become the first woman to fly to the moon. She and three male astronauts will fly around the moon without landing next year under NASA’s Artemis program, the successor to Apollo.