EVA Was Postponed In March Due To Lack Of Appropriate Space Suits

An ISS EVA originally scheduled in March has been rescheduled for October 21 now that there are space suits that fit the astronauts are available on the station.

The mission will be the first to be conducted by an all-female EVA team; astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir. Initially, Koch was to have performed the spacewalk with astronaut Anne McClain, who has since completed her stay on the ISS. McClain herself scrubbed the mission when it was determined that there were not two appropriate space suits available for the EVA.

"We do our best to anticipate the space suit sizes that each astronaut will need, based on the spacesuit size they wore in training on the ground, and in some cases (including Anne McClain's) astronauts train in multiple sizes," Brandi Dean with NASA's public affairs office told CNN in March. "However, individuals' sizing needs may change when they are on orbit, in response to the changes living in microgravity can bring about in a body. In addition, no one training environment can fully simulate performing a spacewalk in microgravity, and an individual may find that their sizing preferences change in space."

CNN reports that the new schedule was announced during a press briefing outlining the next 10 EVAs at the station.

NASA said that the upcoming spacewalks "will help replace solar array batteries and upgrade them to lithium-ion batteries, as well as refurbish the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a scientific instrument "that explores the fundamental nature of the universe."

(Astronauts Christina Koch, Jessica Meir pictured in NASA images)

FMI: Source report