The first all-female spacewalk was supposed to happen this week, but NASA had to shut it down after realizing there weren’t enough spacesuits available to fit…*checks notes* um, two female astronauts.
Right. There aren’t appropriate suits for a whopping two female astronauts.
Apparently there is actually a practical reason for this, highlighting the lack of funding NASA has for making new suits.
“On the International Space Station, there are just four spacesuits available out of a total of just 11 spacesuits that NASA has in total for the ISS,” said spacesuit expert Pablo de Leon. “This is due to the fact that the spacesuits that are now used are the same ones that were used during the space shuttle program.”
And astronaut Anne McClain is ultimately the one who ultimately made the call not to go on the walk, after realizing the suit her fellow astronaut Christina Koch was set to wear was also the one that fit her best.
Nevertheless, not being able to accommodate two women who would’ve made history is NOT a good look, and Twitter is reacting appropriately.
\u201cDoes @RenttheRunway do spacesuits in size medium and can we get one by Friday? https://t.co/f52PWmVset\u201d— Arianna Huffington (@Arianna Huffington) 1553649004
\u201cNASA, probably: "*sigh* Typical. We send two women into space, and suddenly one of them 'doesn't have anything to wear'."\n\nGet your shit together, NASA.\n#Spacewalk #sexism\n\n https://t.co/UnR9dFIYV2\u201d— wordmerchant (@wordmerchant) 1553699635
\u201c"For the love of the god played by Alanis in Dogma,\u00a0NASA just had to cancel the first ever All-Female space walk because they didn\u2019t have enough goddamned T-shirts in women\u2019s sizes because it had NEVER OCCURRED TO THEM THAT MORE THAN ONE WOMAN AT A TIME WOULD DO A SPACE WALK."\u201d— Stephanie Laurenza (@Stephanie Laurenza) 1553655377
\u201cNow seems like a good time to remind people that male NASA engineers thought women would need space makeup \ud83d\ude80\ud83d\udc84\u201d— Kate Kelly (@Kate Kelly) 1553652690
But our Alternate Timeline President probably summed the whole dang thing up best—
\u201cMake another suit. https://t.co/mu9w13xsi0\u201d— Hillary Clinton (@Hillary Clinton) 1553617059
This is almost as bad as that time NASA recommended an all-female mission to Mars so that the astronauts wouldn't hook up in space. Umm. Yeah. Get your shit together, NASA!
