SPOKANE, Wash. — Social media has blown up since NASA announced that the first all-female spacewalk, which would have involved Spokane native and Gonzaga Prep alumna Anne McClain, won't happen due to an assignment change stemming from spacesuit availability.
According to a NASA press release, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and McClain were supposed to perform the first ever all-female spacewalk this Friday.
NASA said that after consulting with McClain during the first spacewalk, mission managers had to change the following spacewalk assignments because both Koch and McClain required a medium-sized upper torso and there was only one available for Friday.
Since the news was released NASA responded saying that the cancellation was not the agency being unprepared, but rather was done to stay on schedule.
In addition, Former Secretary of State and 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton voiced her opinion on the matter.
Her tweet has been responded to with support and question as to why this delay was not prevented.
Clinton is not the only one who is not pleased with the news of the all-female space walk falling through.
Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington shared The Guardian's post of the news as said "We put a man on the moon but we can’t find a spacesuit that fits a woman by Friday."
McClain took part in the first spacewalk of the year on March 22 in her third month on the International Space Station. During the spacewalk, she performed maintenance on the space station with NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague. McClain shared photos of the spacewalk on Twitter.