NASA astronauts step outside space station to perform the 5th all-female spacewalk

By MARCIA DUNN CAPE CANAVERAL Fla AP 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 Related Articles How bugs and beet juice could play roles in the race to replace artificial dyes in food Amazon launches its first internet satellites to compete against SpaceX s Starlinks Bonobos in Congo form girl groups to fend off male aggression inquiry says Trump science cuts roil university labs targeting bird feeder research AI literacy work and more A new Minnesota cover crop could help make air journey greener UMN St Paul researchers say 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 Outside for nearly six hours the spacewalkers prepared the station for another new set of solar panels and moved an antenna on the -mile-high -kilometer-high complex They were welcomed back inside by the space station s commander Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi We are so happy to have you back and your dinner is ready so don t worry about it Onishi commented The space station had to be raised into a slightly higher orbit Wednesday evening to avoid space junk part of a -year-old Chinese rocket McClain an Army colonel and helicopter pilot should have taken part in the first all-female spacewalk in but there weren t enough medium-size suits The first women-only spacewalk was by Christina Koch and Jessica Meir The latest was the fifth all-female spacewalk in years of spacewalking Koch soon will 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 undertaking the successor to Apollo Men still outnumber women in NASA s astronaut corps Of NASA s ongoing astronauts are women And of the seven astronauts presently living at the space station McClain and Ayers are the only women It was the first spacewalk for Ayers an Air Force major and former fighter pilot and the third for McClain The Associated Press Fitness and Science Department receives promotion from the Howard Hughes Therapeutic Institute s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The AP is solely responsible for all content