NASA astronaut Anne McClain during her March 22 spacewalk.
NASA
It’s been 35 years since cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space when she stepped outside the Salyut 7 space station. We’re now going to have to wait longer for the first all-female spacewalk.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch were originally scheduled to take a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Friday, which would have made them the first all-female spacewalk team in history. NASA announced a change of assignments on Monday that will instead send astronaut Nick Hague out with Koch.
Hague and Koch will continue work on a project to upgrade the ISS solar array battery storage system. They will swap out old nickel-hydrogen batteries with more powerful lithium-ion batteries.
“McClain learned during her first spacewalk that a medium-size hard upper torso — essentially the shirt of the spacesuit — fits her best,” NASA said. “Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it.”
This spacewalk would have been a quick turnaround for McClain, who took part in her first spacewalk this past Friday along with Hague. McClain and Hague worked on swapping out batteries and installing adapter plates.
The battery upgrades are scheduled to take place over a couple of years as new hardware arrives at the ISS.
NASA TV will kick off live coverage starting at 3:30 a.m. PT Friday. The actual spacewalk is expected to begin around 5:20 a.m. PT and will last about 6.5 hours.
McClain is still set to take another spacewalk, but this time it’s scheduled for April 8 along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques.
Originally posted March 25, 9:35 a.m.
Update, 3 p.m. PT: Adds details from NASA’s change-of-assignment announcement.