Why we?re not going to see the first all-female spacewalk today

Originally, NASA had announced that today’s excursion would be performed by the two women currently on board the ISS, Anne McClain and Christina Koch, making it the first all-female spacewalk in history. But due to some last-minute logistics and suit availability on the ISS, a male astronaut, Nick Hague, is taking McClain’s place instead.When NASA first announced that today’s scheduled spacewalk would be conducted by only women, the news was met with widespread praise and excitement. NASA made the decision decades ago to only have three sizes of the spacesuit torso — medium, large, and extra-large — in part because the pieces are costly to make. If anything happens to the current stock, NASA may not have enough spacesuits to perform activities outside of the space station over the next decade, a shortage that would affect all astronauts, regardless of gender.That future isn’t here yet, and it’s possible there’s still time for an all-female spacewalk to happen.