Tense moment NASA astronaut notices 'slice' in her suit's glove during exceedingly rare spacewalk
The incident occurred during the fifth ever all-female spacewalk
A tense moment for a NASA astronaut was captured after she noticed a ‘slice’ in her suit’s glove.
The incident occurred during an exceedingly rare spacewalk that took place on May 1st.
Two NASA astronauts stepped outside of the International Space Station (ISS) for a rare all-female spacewalk.
Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers wore Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) suits for the task, where they were aiming to mount a bracket for a future solar array to increase the station’s power generation capacity by up to 30%.
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However, the six and a half hour long mission didn’t quite go to plan.
Less than one hour in, McClain alerted ground control in Houston to a slice in the glove of her suit.
In a clip that has now circulated on social media, the astronaut can be heard explaining that there is a cut to the index finger of her glove, with ground control asking for a ‘closer view’.
McClain is heard saying: “If it helps, when I bend it, it's kind of right at the corner where the finger bends, but when I bend it, a little tab opens up.”
Watching on from McClain’s helmet camera, Houston responds: “You wanna move it a little closer, so we can have a closer view?”
Ground control went on to say: “EV-1, this is Houston, thank you so much for your video, we are assessing and discussing on the ground.”
Reacting to the video on X, formerly Twitter, users expressed their concerns with one person writing: “Yikes. Surprised they’re proceeding since they just started and have several hours left in the EVA.”
Another said: “Why even risk it?”
And a third added: “Bit of duct tape will fix the issue.”
Luckily, despite initial concerns, it turned out to not be serious after all.
Houston said: “Taking a look, it is a string of the Turtleskin along the seam of the finger. No additional checks needed other than keep reporting if you see anything off nominal.”
Speaking to Futurism after the spacewalk, NASA said: “Using Thursday’s imagery and imagery of a similar glove configuration from past spacewalks, NASA determined it was a string along the turtle skin portion of the glove.
“The string posed no risk to McClain, and the spacewalk was able to proceed.”
McClain was able to proceed with the spacewalk and it was a success, making it only the fifth ever all-female one.