When buying clothes at a store, if the racks only have large sizes, a petite person can just go to another shop. But in space, 400 kilometers above the Earth, ill-fitting clothes aren’t just an embarrassment. If the size is wrong, scheduled work tasks will be aborted midway. Such a scene occurred on the International Space Station in 2019.
On September 1, 2026, Beijing time, two astronauts opened the airlock (the buffer door connecting the interior of the space station to the vacuum outside). They were NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot. Together, they completed a 6-hour and 49-minute extravehicular maintenance spacewalk.
This was the 6th all-female spacewalk in human history. For the International Space Station (ISS), it was also the 284th maintenance spacewalk. Years ago, personnel had to be temporarily swapped because spacesuits didn’t fit; today, astronauts routinely go out to work. Space operations are shaking off the male default body size.
6 Hours of Continuous Screwdriving Outside
In the minds of many, spacewalks are filled with romance. However, real extravehicular operations are intense physical labor. Astronauts must don Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs) weighing over a hundred kilograms (essentially micro-spaceships wrapping the whole body). Outside, the temperature fluctuates wildly, exceeding 100 degrees Celsius in the sun and dropping below minus 100 degrees in the shade. They need to work continuously in this environment for nearly 7 hours.
Meir and Adenot’s spacewalk this time involved no ceremonial intervention; it was pure, hard-core engineering. First, they installed a new retroflector on the forward port of the Harmony module. This device reflects incident light back along its original path, acting like a reversing radar for docking spacecraft. Subsequently, they removed an aging high-definition camera and replaced it with new equipment, while also wiping down exterior microbial experiment samples. Finally, they laid electrical jumper cables (flexible cables used to connect circuits across zones). This paved the way for future replacement of the radiators on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS, a physics instrument for detecting dark matter).
Image: NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir prepares to enter the Quest airlock. Source: NASA
The International Space Station travels at 7.9 kilometers per second, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes. When working outside, astronauts experience a sunrise and sunset every 45 minutes. In the rapid alternation of light and dark, they rely entirely on safety tethers hooked to the station’s outer wall, tightening screws with thick pressurized gloves.
Spacesuit Wiring Harness Stuck on Shoulder, Fixed on the Spot
When working suspended in the high altitude of space, any minor equipment failure is magnified. Shortly after exiting the airlock, Adenot felt restricted movement in her left arm, encountering resistance when bending the joint. Astronauts need to rely on arm support and carry things frequently outside; arm obstruction directly impacts task progress.
Upon noticing the anomaly, Meir quickly moved to her teammate’s side to inspect. She checked the shoulder structure and found that the electric heater wiring harness for the gloves had shifted during suit-up, getting caught in the zipper gap. Meir unzipped it on the spot, rearranged and secured the harness, restoring mobility to her teammate’s arm.
The situation was handled cleanly and efficiently, thanks to the years of experience both astronauts possess. This was Meir’s 7th spacewalk of her career, and Adenot’s 3rd. On the leaderboard for total spacewalk time among NASA female astronauts, Meir has moved up to 3rd place, trailing only Peggy Whitson (10 times) and Suni Williams (9 times).
Image: Two astronauts perform structural maintenance and cable routing outside the space station. Source: NASA
Sizing Embarrassment Seven Years Ago Forced Equipment Standardization
Today’s smooth all-female spacewalk comes after an awkward twist seven years ago. In March 2019, NASA planned for Anne McClain and Christina Koch to complete the first-ever all-female spacewalk. But after her first trial, McClain discovered that only the medium-sized hard upper torso fit her properly.
At the time, there was only one medium torso assembled and ready on the station. If she wore an oversized suit outside, her body would slide within the hard shell, joints wouldn’t align with axes, and she might not even be able to grip safety tethers tightly. To ensure safety, NASA had to urgently swap personnel, replacing her with a male astronaut.
This incident exposed the design limitations of early space equipment. Early extravehicular suit systems were primarily developed using male body data as the sizing baseline. A single extravehicular suit costs tens of millions of dollars, and engineering teams limited the number of sizes to save costs. This led to smaller-statured astronauts long facing the problem of oversized suits and cumbersome handling.
Spacewalks No Longer Need Special Approval Highlight Moments
In October 2019, Meir and Koch stepped out of the airlock in correctly fitted medium gear. They completed humanity’s first all-female spacewalk. At the time, global media covered it extensively, and major platforms livestreamed the event, viewing the mission as a glass-ceiling-shattering milestone.
By the 6th such spacewalk in 2026, the scene lacked the hype of special promotion. The two astronauts simply went to work like engineers: checking tools, stepping out the door, completing repairs, and returning on time. Over the past few years, space agencies have improved the upper torso fitting scheme and optimized the underwater training pool system. This allows astronauts of varying body proportions to receive suitable equipment support.
The two female astronauts completing the 6th all-female spacewalk in history shows that spacewalks are moving from highlight moments to standardized normality. When equipment and training systems no longer default to the male physique as standard, space work returns to the technology itself. This is also a crucial step forward for space engineering standardization.
Reference links:
- NASA Blog: ESA, NASA Astronauts Complete Navigation and Science Spacewalk Outside Station
- BBC News: Watch: Astronauts set out on rare all-female spacewalk
- Original context: NASA’s first all-female spacewalk in 2019 (spacesuit sizing issue)
