More than 4,000 people signed a petition as of Thursday morning calling on NASA to reschedule the first all-female spacewalk after it was canceled earlier this week because there weren't enough available suits that fit.
"People around the world were ready to witness history. Unfortunately, NASA wasn't ready to make it," stated the online petition, which was posted Tuesday evening by Care2's advocacy and engagement team.
On Monday, NASA decided to cancel the spacewalk, which would have been conducted by American astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch, after McClain said she would feel more comfortable in a smaller suit.
The spacewalk was scheduled for Friday morning to replace old batteries on the International Space Station's solar arrays with more powerful, lithium-ion ones.
Initially, McClain thought she would be able to wear a large-sized hard upper torso — the spacesuit's shirt. Turns out, she was more comfortable in a medium and only one medium-sized torso could be made ready by Friday.
So, Koch will wear the medium this week, walking instead with NASA astronaut Nick Hague. McClain will wear the medium again on April 8, when she walks with Canada's David Saint-Jacques.
The announcement brought a major backlash on social media, eliciting shock, disappointment and, in some cases, anger from the scientific community.
In response, McClain tweeted Wednesday that NASA's decision to bump her from the walk "was based on my recommendation."
"Leaders must make tough calls, and I am fortunate to work with a team who trusts my judgement," she wrote. "We must never accept a risk that can instead be mitigated. Safety of the crew and execution of the mission come first."
She continued to tweet about the change throughout the day, telling followers to "Tune in — history is made every day up here!"
There currently are two medium, two large and two extra large spacesuits on the station. However, the other medium is a spare and could not be configured quickly enough for the Friday walk.
"To stay on schedule with @Space_Station upgrades, it's safer & faster to change spacewalker assignments than reconfigure spacesuits," NASA tweeted in response Tuesday.
But the petition writers called it "disappointing," adding that NASA should have enough suits to fit women on the space station.
"Canceling a spacewalk because there weren't enough suits to fit male astronauts is almost unheard of, probably because there are ample suits ready to go that fit the men of the ISS," the petition stated. "Women astronauts deserve to have the same courtesy."
NASA officials said in a statement Thursday that spacewalks are scheduled when important operations and maintenance need to be done on the station.
Though there currently aren't any spacewalks scheduled after April 8, the statement added, there are "multiple women assigned to upcoming missions to the space station, and we would not hesitate to assign two women to perform a spacewalk."
"We believe an all-female spacewalk is inevitable," the statement continued.
The all-female spacewalk would have drawn accolades for an agency that has been slow to make historic strides with women and minorities.
For example, the first female Mission Control chief flight director was only picked last year and the United States was 20 years behind the Soviet Union in putting a woman into space.
The U.S. also was behind in allowing women to conduct spacewalks. The first woman to do so was the Soviet Union's Svetlana Savitskaya in 1984. Only 13 women have conducted spacewalks since; Koch will be the 14th. Crewmembers aboard the space station have conducted 214 spacewalks since 1998, when construction of the orbiting laboratory first began.
Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
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