Spokane astronaut McClain backs up decision to cancel first ever all-female spacewalk

Spokane native and NASA astronaut Anne McClain said she made the recommendation to swap her out of what would have been the first all-female spacewalk in history.

“Leaders must make tough calls, and I am fortunate to work with a team who trusts my judgement,” she tweeted Wednesday in regard to the spacewalk scheduled for Friday outside the International Space Station. “We must never accept a risk that can instead be mitigated. Safety of the crew and execution of the mission come first.”

The crew canceled the spacewalk as planned because of a lack of available medium-sized spacesuits, according to NASA.

In a change of plans, NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch will instead set out Friday to upgrade batteries attached to solar panels on the ISS.

“…it’s safer & faster to change spacewalker assignments than reconfigure spacesuits,” NASA tweeted.