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NASA ISS Space

First All-Female Spacewalk Canceled Because NASA Doesn't Have Two Suits That Fit (npr.org) 181

Posted by BeauHD from the better-safe-than-sorry dept.
The first all-female spacewalk scheduled for Friday has been cancelled by NASA (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source) because they don't have two spacesuits that fit the female astronauts. According to The New York Times, Anne C. McClain and Christina H. Koch both need to wear a medium-size torso component, but only one is readily available at the International Space Station. From the report: The mission itself is unchanged. On Friday, two astronauts will venture outside of the space station on a six-hour mission to install massive lithium-ion batteries that will help to power the research laboratory. Ms. Koch is still scheduled to participate, along with her fellow astronaut Nick Hague; Ms. McClain did her first spacewalk last week. But the first women-only venture outside of the confines of the space station will have to happen on another day. "After consulting with McClain and Hague following the first spacewalk, mission managers decided to adjust the assignments, due in part to spacesuit availability on the station," NASA said in a statement.

Stephanie Schierholz, a spokeswoman for NASA, said in an interview on Monday that there were already two medium-size hard upper torsos -- "essentially the shirt of the spacesuit," according to NASA -- at the space station. But there were a couple of issues. One was that Ms. McClain had thought she would be able to work in a large-size torso, but after her spacewalk last Friday, she wore a medium-size torso and learned that it fit her better. Ms. Koch also uses the same size. And of the two medium-size torsos available, one has yet to be properly configured for a spacewalk. It would take hours of crew labor -- not to mention some additional risk -- to fix that in time for Friday. Instead of doing that, NASA decided to simply switch out the astronauts. In the end, both women will have done a spacewalk -- just not together.
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First All-Female Spacewalk Canceled Because NASA Doesn't Have Two Suits That Fit More

First All-Female Spacewalk Canceled Because NASA Doesn't Have Two Suits That Fit

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  • Quick! Send up another one! NOW! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26, 2019 @10:22PM (#58339360)

    Quick! Spend $100Million to send up a second medium torso component so that the United States can claim victory in the area of extra-planetary social justice!!!

    • Re:Quick! Send up another one! NOW! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @12:06AM (#58339626)

      They have a second medium torso on the ISS, it would just take 12 hours to bring it up to usable spec for use in this space walk.

      They elected to instead switch to another astronaut who fitted one of the other, already usable torso units.

      This whole thing came about because the astronaut in question was fitted for the large torso, but on orbit determined that the medium torso was a better fit during an earlier spacewalk, and as such NASA errs on the side of caution as the fit contributes significantly to performance.

      • "This whole thing came about because the astronaut in question was fitted for the large torso, but on orbit determined that the medium torso was a better fit "

        Fitted or not, with all that training that's needed, NASA couldn't get the size of an astronaut right?

        • Firting of Suits (Score:5, Interesting)

          by HannethCom ( 585323 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @04:08AM (#58340132)
          With their lack of budget and who creates some of there products dictated by which State voted "correctly", fitting is very difficult for NASA.
          They have their template suites on Earth that they use for fitting. The problem is the materials act differently that high up. The other problem is each suite is slightly different.
          These suites where built between 1982 and 1986. Originally they were pretty much the same, but all hand made. Now they sometimes are repair on Earth, but other times are repaired in space with the materials available. The templates, and even the various suites just don't match anymore. Some suites they've had to bring back because they are disintegrating.
          There has been a program in place to create new suites, but it has been taking a long time, particularly due to who they can work with changing every 2 years with elections, partially due to government budgets dictating what money will be spent on.

        • Re:Quick! Send up another one! NOW! (Score:5, Informative)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @08:46AM (#58340670)

          Astronauts change size in orbit. McClain has mentioned that she's grown by about two inches.

          NASA has a *very* detailed fitting procedure for spacesuits, but final fit choice is made by the astronaut herself.

        • Re:Quick! Send up another one! NOW! (Score:4, Funny)

          by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @09:20AM (#58340822)

          "This whole thing came about because the astronaut in question was fitted for the large torso, but on orbit determined that the medium torso was a better fit "

          Fitted or not, with all that training that's needed, NASA couldn't get the size of an astronaut right?

          I've seen plenty of science fiction. I pretty sure that the spandex space suits that female astronauts wear are one size fits all.

      • They have a second medium torso on the ISS, it would just take 12 hours to bring it up to usable spec for use in this space walk.

        It pinches right here, and can you take it in a bit there?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )

        " it would just take 12 hours to bring it up to usable spec for use in this space walk."

        not true at all.

      • Their suits come in medium, large and extra large. Who manufactures them-- Durex?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by torkus ( 1133985 )

        Aaaaaaand this is the news article that should have been posted.

        Instead, angry masses are going on about how NASA is discriminating against women based purely on a title and not even looking at the article. Can we reboot social media and start over please?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 )

      Quick! Spend $100Million to send up a second medium torso component

      No need for new spacesuits. Gender is just a social construct.

  • ProTip: Have a male identify as female (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26, 2019 @10:23PM (#58339366)

    BOOM! Problem solved!

  • Real Reason (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26, 2019 @10:26PM (#58339378)

    Real reason: They refused to go out in public wearing the same outfit!

  • so I just go with "Stuff Happens". Just send one up on the next supply ship.
    You know until they get things to a point where there is a bit of flexibility in operations. Real space work will be left to the private market and the future.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

  • Not even wrong. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2019 @10:37PM (#58339416)

    because they don't have two spacesuits that fit the female astronauts

    These do have two spacesuits that fit the female astronauts, just not ones that are tooled for this particular mission.

    "Two mediums existed on the ISS, but only one was prepped for a spacewalk. Instead of devoting extensive crew time to make the extra medium-sized suit space-worthy by Friday, NASA decided to restaff"

    I think it's equally important to recognize that both NASA and the astronauts are putting the mission first.

    • This is good.

    • I think it's equally important to recognize that both NASA and the astronauts are putting the mission first.

      But how does the poor maligned suit feel about that? It's just not good enough without help and is now embarrassed about it. Mission smission, it's only LOOKING GOOD that counts!

      "equally important" -- no, it's MORE important. Who does it is unimportant, that it gets done safely and properly is of prime importance. And that includes the tools and support staff. There's always a slight risk no matter what, but you minimize those to the best of your ability.

      (Challenger, anyone?) Wiki [wikipedia.org], NASA [nasa.gov], UPI [upi.com]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Kartu ( 1490911 )

      I think it's equally important to recognize that both NASA and the astronauts are putting the mission first.

      Do they? This part sounded a bit different to me:

      " McClain had thought she would be able to work in a large-size torso, but after her spacewalk last Friday, she wore a medium-size torso and learned that it fit her better. "

    • "Two mediums existed on the ISS, but only one was prepped for a spacewalk. Instead of devoting extensive crew time to make the extra medium-sized suit space-worthy by Friday, NASA decided to restaff"

      Alright, have you got that announcement ready?

      Yeah. We have made sure we have everything we need for this right?

      I'm sure it will be fine.

  • Hopefully in an emergency, any old suit torso would be ok.

    Wasn't there someBNASA project to re-design the suits?

    I seem to recall SpaceX was working on it too...

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Holy Hell (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I thought the left wing stuff was baloney but here you cock suckers are being so terrified of women doing anything that you have to insult them. /. is full of a bunch of fucking pansy asses. What a bunch of pussy ass bitches you all are.

  • List of spacewalkers
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Reads down to 1984. Soviet Union and the USA have done that.

  • Conspiracy theories aside, lack of preparation? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LostMyBeaver ( 1226054 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @01:40AM (#58339808)
    It seems to me that lack of preparation is an issue here.

    Even the blurb explains that the issue was that there was a planned spacewalk and although there are 6 astronauts on board the ISS at this time and there has been some time to make the decision to prepare the space suits, no one saw fit to ... well... to fit the suits appropriately.

    Who gives a shit about the gender of the astronauts beyond ensuring there is appropriate necessities in the ISS to facilitate their gender specific needs? This could have easily been a similar problem if one of the astronauts was a smaller male. They are basically two nerds, one a mechanical and aerospace engineer and the other, a physicist and electrical engineer.

    This past year has been one whole year of :
      - First female to win Abel award... yeh... she won it because she's a she... not because she is one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the last 70 years
      - All female spacewalk cancelled... yeh, they're astronauts because they're girls, not because they both achieved top marks from top schools in areas of science and engineering.
      - all female..
      - first woman...

    I mean seriously... what's the f-ing point here? Exceptional people are exceptional people... and moron journalists are moron journalists... done.

    • There was a strong political desire to have two women do a spacewalk together. I'd be concerned that such political desires do not encourage NASA to take unnecessary risks. I was very suspicious, when Challenger failed at lunch time in poor weather, that they'd been under strong political pressure to launch as scheduled to meet political demands for the flight of the "civilian", the teacher Christa McAuliffe. That's a disaster NASA is wise to avoid, and refitting either space suit is time and work and risk

    • Women need to be shown other women doing things.
      Because they have no initiative, no imagination, complete herd mentality.
      The only way to kickstart women doing anything is being told to by a man. /sarcasm

      It's like the special Olympics but with their genitals as the handicap.
      Gotta love all that progressive crypto-chauvinism.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's notable because the ratio of men and women in the world is more or less 50:50, and the first spacewalk with two men was decades ago, so statistically if selection was completely random it would be surprising that there still has not been a case of two women outside at the same time.

      That makes it interesting to note the historical reasons why and the fact that even today, after all the progress we have made, it was only just about to happen but was scuppered at the last minute. As you say, it should be

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by pavon ( 30274 )

      It wasn't lack of preparation. It isn't possible to do an exact fit of suit on earth as body proportions change in weightlessness, and the ISS doesn't have a ton of room for full spare suits. So they keep two full suits and some spare parts.

      After using both the large and medium torso in training exercises on earth, McClain believed that the large torso would work better. Your spine elongates and your internal organs shift further up in your torso when weightless, so erring on the side of larger torso make s

    • Read it again. One of the female astronauts thought she could use the large suit but after her first space walk decided the medium fit better. She is the one who is not going on the next one.

    • no one saw fit to ... well... to fit the suits appropriately.

      People change size when exposed to a zero-G environment for a while. What fit on Earth is not fitting well in space. So instead of jeopardizing the mission for a political stunt, they're going to use another astronaut.

      So, what's the problem here? They're doing exactly what you want them to do.

  • Switch to skinsuits (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @04:47AM (#58340188)

    Long ago, there was a proposal for "skinsuits", very tightly fitted suits much like wetsuits that were completely form fitting and much lighter. The suits were also not airtight. Air (or oxygen) was fed in through the helmet, which was quite rigid, and leaked into the suit and leaked out for cooling. They relied on the strength of the fabric, and of the skin of the astronaut, to provide the mechanical support to keep the astronaut intact in vacuum. The design was much lighter than NASA and Soviet designs, and much less expensive. The operational difference was like that between a scuba diver and a the old dry suits with brass helmets and hoses. The design was lighter, took less space, and was much easier to maintain.

    I do not know what has held up development for this kind of suit. The difference in weight of the suit, alone, should have saved enough fuel costs at launch time to justify research. I don't understand why the astronauts themselves have not demanded it, to improve mobility.

    • Re:Switch to skinsuits (Score:4, Informative)

      by twosat ( 1414337 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @08:48AM (#58340680)

      You are probably thinking about Professor Dava Newman's BioSuit: https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/61704... [nasa.gov]
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      • Re:Switch to skinsuits (Score:4, Informative)

        by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @09:57AM (#58341000)

        That's the basic design, yes. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle referred to them as "skintights" in their fiction. Their asteroid miners typically wore the suits 24x7 in their very small space craft. The idea was researched at as far back as the 1950's, shortly after the invention of the modern wet suit, and tested for the Mercury program, and has some verifiable research from the 1970's as well. The ideas are not new: materials and manufacture with those new materials have improved.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by J05H ( 5625 )

      Skinsuits are a great idea, if they can be made to work in full vacuum. Dr. Webb's SAS tests were only to 38,000' in a vac chamber. A more current option would be something lighter based on Final Frontier's suit or the old Apollo Extension Suit from Elkins. One thing to consider with any lighter suit is the opposite need, that these are suits used in heavy construction and need to be built tough. NASA almost went with the AX5 hardsuit for station.

      • Physical protection is important. But how much is used, or needed, even on a normal construction site? Safety glasses, helmet, gloves and boots would be needed, though gloves are a trade-off between protection and dexterity. Incidental rips are a risk, but are they more avoidable if the suit is flexible and helps the astronaut be more agile and complete their task more quickly? These are fascinating questions.

    • I do not know what has held up development for this kind of suit.

      The same thing that holds up the development of many things - making a skinsuit has turned out to a Very Hard Task and the slender advantages aren't worth the amount of money it would take to solve the engineering issues.

      • > making a skinsuit has turned out to a Very Hard Task

        But what, precisely, makes it a "Very Hard Task"? The Wikipedia article on the MIT "BioSuit" is interesting and describes some of the progress. It doesn't indicate what the researchers think are the most difficult remaining issues, or if there are any that have really never been addressed. I, for one, would like to know.

  • Who gives a fuck? (Score:3)

    by skovnymfe ( 1671822 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @04:49AM (#58340196)
    Really? Who gives a fuck?

  • Because "the first all female space walk" is stupid. If we're equal, then who cares?

    But I'm sure this will be spun as being horribly unfair, how dare we not have enough woman-sized suits around, etc.

  • This is not feminist progress (Score:3)

    by es330td ( 964170 ) on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @08:54AM (#58340706)
    If feminists actually wanted progress they would want nothing said at all about this. True equality means the best person does the job without consideration of gender, ethnicity or any other personal factor. Pointing out that a task was completed only by women makes it seems as though there was some question whether it could be completed without a man. Long gone are the days when the prevailing thought is that women are incapable of technical or mechanical tasks. The battery will not be installed any differently because of the gender of the people are doing it. Concrete progress in social justice will be measured by the day when an article can say "Astronauts Shannon Miller and Marion Cruz completed a spacewalk" and we don't even know the genders of the people involved.

  • She couldn't go out because she didn't have a thing to wear.

  • Space is unforgiving. Gender is absolutely irrelevant compared to safety and skill. I'm sure both women are skilled at their jobs, but safety dictated they both can't walk at the same time (for now). If that's is upsetting, get over it.

    PR stunts have zero value compared to this.

  • 2019 NASA Spacewalkers Pinup Calendar

  • Here is a fantastic video addressing this Question!

    (Worth the time)
    https://www.bitchute.com/video... [bitchute.com]

  • If there is a suit on board the ISS that is not ready for use, then it might as well not be there. OTOH if it's really a matter of only 12 hours of work to get it ready and usable, rearrange the schedule to get that lifeboat ship-shape. Shouldn't the first priority on any vessel be to ensure that all operational equipment is in working order, especially life-safety equipment? If the first act of a "Babylon 5" or "Battlestar Galactica" episode showed a suit still in its bubble-wrap, you could bet that b

  • Ms. McClain had thought she would be able to work in a large-size torso, but after her spacewalk last Friday, she wore a medium-size torso and learned that it fit her better.

    I'm confused by the wording here. Is it saying she wore a large one on Friday, but then found out afterwards that a medium fit her better? Or it saying that she thought a large would fit, but instead tried a medium. Then afterwards she determined the medium fit and the large wouldn't?

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