\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKathryn Sullivan: The First American Woman to Walk in Space\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/41g-13-032.jpg?w=1536\")
<\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\nAstronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan checks the latch of the SIR-B antenna in the space shuttle Challenger’s open cargo bay during her historic extravehicular activity (EVA) on Oct. 11, 1984. Earlier, America’s first woman to perform an EVA and astronaut David C. Leestma, participated in an in-space simulation of refueling a spacecraft in orbit.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCredits: <\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNASA<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nForty years ago, in October 1984, Kathryn D. Sullivan<\/a> became the first American woman to walk in space.\u00a0But being the first presented several challenges that started well before she took those historic steps.\u00a0Things got complicated just after she learned of her assignment.<\/p>\nQuestions of Physiology<\/h2>\n
Biomedical researchers at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center (JSC) raised what they believed was a serious issue with women walking in space and alerted George W.S. Abbey<\/a>, the head of the Flight Crew Operations Directorate. Females, he learned, were more likely than their male counterparts to develop the bends in the low-pressure environment of the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), the spacesuit she would wear.\u00a0To alleviate the possibility of developing decompression syndrome, all spacewalkers had to breathe pure oxygen before a spacewalk to eliminate nitrogen from their bloodstream.\u00a0Researchers insisted Sullivan (and any future women spacewalkers) spend more time than their male counterparts breathing pure oxygen before going outside of the space shuttle. Sullivan quickly learned that there were flaws in the research, which she countered, and Abbey ended up approving the same requirements for men and women doing an extravehicular activity (EVA).\u00a0<\/p>\nSetting the Record<\/h2>\n
After the STS-41G<\/a> crew had been named in the fall of 1983, a colleague\u2014flush with excitement over the recent flight announcement \u2014 congratulated Sally K. Ride<\/a> and Sullivan on their new titles:\u00a0Ride being the first woman to fly in space twice and Sullivan the first woman to walk in space.\u00a0Both shook their heads and explained that it would be many months before launch and that a Soviet woman would fly and do a spacewalk well before the space shuttle Challenger and her crew made it to orbit. As expected, the Soviets assigned cosmonaut Svetlana Y. Savitskaya to a second mission in 1983, less than a month after NASA\u2019s crew announcement. In July 1984, Savitskaya, not Ride, went on to become the first woman to enter space twice and earned the distinction of being the first female to walk in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Kathryn](\"https:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/41g-90082\/41g-90082~large.jpg?w=1920&h=1259&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAstronauts Sally K. Ride (right) and Kathryn D. Sullivan, two of three mission specialists, synchronize their watches prior to ingressing the Space Shuttle Challenger on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on October 5, 1984.<\/div>\nNASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSullivan was not disappointed at losing the title.\u00a0As she recalled in an oral history interview, being selected for an EVA was an \u201cextraordinary opportunity,\u201d and it did not matter where she was in the queue. She could not understand how people arrived at the idea that the \u201cseventh, tenth, or thirteenth \u2026 is [any] less meaningful \u2026 than some historical first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others at the Johnson Space Center still thought there was a way they could best the Soviets. Sullivan\u2019s trainers took note of how short Savitskaya\u2019s EVA was.\u00a0It was only about three and a half hours.\u00a0\u201cA little bit more than that,\u201d they explained, and \u201cyou\u2019ll get the duration record!\u201d\u00a0But the idea of breaking her record by a few minutes seemed ludicrous.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m certainly not going to go tromping around on dinner speeches \u2026 saying, \u2018Well yes, but I have the duration record.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, I\u2019m right here!\u201d<\/h2>\n
While the issue of breaking and setting records remained of interest at NASA more than twenty years after the Soviets sent cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space, Sullivan found herself grappling with other matters she found equally frustrating.\u00a0First, there was the sexist media.\u00a0No journalist asked how she was feeling about her role in the mission. Flying women in space was still new to the American news media in 1983\u2014Ride had only flown her first mission in June, and while Judith A. Resnik had been named to a mission, she had not yet been in orbit.\u00a0But Ride had not completed an EVA; only men had walked in space, and some found the activity challenging. Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan described his first EVA as the \u201cspacewalk from hell.\u201d\u00a0Spacewalks can be physically demanding, and it was assumed that women might not have the strength to do so.\u00a0Reporters asked commander Robert L. Crippen and Ride, \u201cDo you think Kathy can do this?\u201d\u00a0Sitting at the preflight press conference she reminded reporters that she could speak for herself.\u00a0\u201cHello, I\u2019m right here!\u00a0Hello.\u00a0Hello.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/8447227\/8447227~large.jpg?w=1920&h=1622&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nThe crew assigned to the STS-41G mission included (seated left to right) Jon A. McBride, pilot; mission specialists Sally K. Ride, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and David C. Leestma. Standing in the rear, left to right, are payload specialist Paul D. Scully-Power, mission commander Robert Crippen, and payload specialist Marc Garneau. Launched aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on October 5, 1984, the STS-41G mission marked the first flight to include two women.<\/div>\nNASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere was also the matter of why her spacewalking partner, David C. Leestma, led the EVA.\u00a0She had two years seniority in the Astronaut Office, arriving in 1978; NASA named Leestma to the corps in 1980.\u00a0She also worked on spacesuit issues and the mission\u2019s payload longer than he had, but both were rookies on this mission.\u00a0Sullivan did not think Crippen and Abbey thought she was incapable, but for traditional norms to have been breached in this instance she could not explain why she\u2014the senior ranking astronaut\u2014was playing a support role instead of leading. If anyone asked why, Sullivan told Crippen he\u2014not she\u2014would have to answer the tough questions.<\/p>\n
Space Suit Fit<\/h2>\n
As she prepared for the flight, she began training in the shuttle EMU, which never quite fit her body.\u00a0The suit\u2019s elbow did not align with hers so when she bent her arm, she had to use extra force.\u00a0The lower portion of the suit was misaligned, making it difficult to bend her knee.\u00a0Being the first American woman to do a spacewalk, she decided what was most important was to perform the EVA and demonstrate the EMU worked for women.\u00a0\u201cI reckoned the wrong thing to do was to turn the first evolution of a woman doing a spacewalk into a controversy.\u00a0\u2026 I just sucked it up and dealt with it.\u201d\u00a0The suit techs knew the EMU was not quite her size, but she made it work. Later, when assigned to STS-45, one of the techs noticed how poorly the suit fit.\u00a0\u201cWe ought to do something about it.\u00a0It ought to fit you,\u201d he said.\u00a0Sullivan responded, \u201cWe can start that conversation now, but if you think I was going to make that the conversation on the first EVA you\u2019re crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/s84-36954\/s84-36954~large.jpg?w=1920&h=1249&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAstronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, STS-41G mission specialist, gets some help with her extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) prior to participating in an underwater simulation of an extravehicular activity (EVA) scheduled for her flight aboard the Columbia in October 1984. Dr. Sullivan and David C. Leestma (out of frame) participated in the rehearsal in NASA\u2019s weightless environment training facility (WET-F) at the Johnson Space Center.<\/div>\nNASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Walk to Remember<\/h2>\n
Two days after Sullivan\u2019s thirty-third birthday, STS-41G launched on October 5, 1984.\u00a0Once in orbit, the flight plan changed quickly.\u00a0A problem with a malfunctioning Ku-band antenna meant that the EVA had to be pushed back to the day before reentry.\u00a0Sullivan worried that the walk might be scrapped, but when they finally began the pre-breathing protocol, she relaxed.\u00a0\u201cChallenger, Houston: You are GO for EVA,\u201d Sullivan recalled, \u201cwere the sweetest words I had ever heard.\u201d\u00a0Sullivan and Leestma\u2019s EVA was short\u2014only three hours and twenty-nine minutes\u2014but busy.\u00a0Leestma demonstrated it was possible to refuel satellites in orbit, while Sullivan monitored his work.\u00a0When he wrapped up his task, Sullivan finally had the opportunity to \u201cdo something, not just watch things.\u201d\u00a0She stowed the malfunctioning antenna and before they went back inside the shuttle, they filmed a scene for an IMAX film, The Dream is Alive\u2014where the two spacewalkers rose from the bottom of the space shuttle\u2019s windows and waved at the crew inside, mimicking the \u201cKilroy Was Here\u201d meme. When filming concluded, Sullivan and Leestma returned to Challenger.\u00a0\u201cMy first spacewalking adventure,\u201d Sullivan wrote in her memoir, \u201cwas over all too soon.\u201d The next day, President Ronald Reagan called<\/a> to ask Sullivan about her experience.\u00a0\u201cKathy, when we met at the White House, I know you were excited about walking in space. Was it what you expected?\u201d he asked.\u00a0Sullivan responded affirmatively and added, \u201cI think it was the most fantastic experience of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNASA<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Forty years ago, in October 1984, Kathryn D. Sullivan<\/a> became the first American woman to walk in space.\u00a0But being the first presented several challenges that started well before she took those historic steps.\u00a0Things got complicated just after she learned of her assignment.<\/p>\n Biomedical researchers at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center (JSC) raised what they believed was a serious issue with women walking in space and alerted George W.S. Abbey<\/a>, the head of the Flight Crew Operations Directorate. Females, he learned, were more likely than their male counterparts to develop the bends in the low-pressure environment of the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), the spacesuit she would wear.\u00a0To alleviate the possibility of developing decompression syndrome, all spacewalkers had to breathe pure oxygen before a spacewalk to eliminate nitrogen from their bloodstream.\u00a0Researchers insisted Sullivan (and any future women spacewalkers) spend more time than their male counterparts breathing pure oxygen before going outside of the space shuttle. Sullivan quickly learned that there were flaws in the research, which she countered, and Abbey ended up approving the same requirements for men and women doing an extravehicular activity (EVA).\u00a0<\/p>\n After the STS-41G<\/a> crew had been named in the fall of 1983, a colleague\u2014flush with excitement over the recent flight announcement \u2014 congratulated Sally K. Ride<\/a> and Sullivan on their new titles:\u00a0Ride being the first woman to fly in space twice and Sullivan the first woman to walk in space.\u00a0Both shook their heads and explained that it would be many months before launch and that a Soviet woman would fly and do a spacewalk well before the space shuttle Challenger and her crew made it to orbit. As expected, the Soviets assigned cosmonaut Svetlana Y. Savitskaya to a second mission in 1983, less than a month after NASA\u2019s crew announcement. In July 1984, Savitskaya, not Ride, went on to become the first woman to enter space twice and earned the distinction of being the first female to walk in space.<\/p>\n Sullivan was not disappointed at losing the title.\u00a0As she recalled in an oral history interview, being selected for an EVA was an \u201cextraordinary opportunity,\u201d and it did not matter where she was in the queue. She could not understand how people arrived at the idea that the \u201cseventh, tenth, or thirteenth \u2026 is [any] less meaningful \u2026 than some historical first.\u201d<\/p>\n Others at the Johnson Space Center still thought there was a way they could best the Soviets. Sullivan\u2019s trainers took note of how short Savitskaya\u2019s EVA was.\u00a0It was only about three and a half hours.\u00a0\u201cA little bit more than that,\u201d they explained, and \u201cyou\u2019ll get the duration record!\u201d\u00a0But the idea of breaking her record by a few minutes seemed ludicrous.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m certainly not going to go tromping around on dinner speeches \u2026 saying, \u2018Well yes, but I have the duration record.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While the issue of breaking and setting records remained of interest at NASA more than twenty years after the Soviets sent cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space, Sullivan found herself grappling with other matters she found equally frustrating.\u00a0First, there was the sexist media.\u00a0No journalist asked how she was feeling about her role in the mission. Flying women in space was still new to the American news media in 1983\u2014Ride had only flown her first mission in June, and while Judith A. Resnik had been named to a mission, she had not yet been in orbit.\u00a0But Ride had not completed an EVA; only men had walked in space, and some found the activity challenging. Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan described his first EVA as the \u201cspacewalk from hell.\u201d\u00a0Spacewalks can be physically demanding, and it was assumed that women might not have the strength to do so.\u00a0Reporters asked commander Robert L. Crippen and Ride, \u201cDo you think Kathy can do this?\u201d\u00a0Sitting at the preflight press conference she reminded reporters that she could speak for herself.\u00a0\u201cHello, I\u2019m right here!\u00a0Hello.\u00a0Hello.\u201d<\/p>\n There was also the matter of why her spacewalking partner, David C. Leestma, led the EVA.\u00a0She had two years seniority in the Astronaut Office, arriving in 1978; NASA named Leestma to the corps in 1980.\u00a0She also worked on spacesuit issues and the mission\u2019s payload longer than he had, but both were rookies on this mission.\u00a0Sullivan did not think Crippen and Abbey thought she was incapable, but for traditional norms to have been breached in this instance she could not explain why she\u2014the senior ranking astronaut\u2014was playing a support role instead of leading. If anyone asked why, Sullivan told Crippen he\u2014not she\u2014would have to answer the tough questions.<\/p>\n As she prepared for the flight, she began training in the shuttle EMU, which never quite fit her body.\u00a0The suit\u2019s elbow did not align with hers so when she bent her arm, she had to use extra force.\u00a0The lower portion of the suit was misaligned, making it difficult to bend her knee.\u00a0Being the first American woman to do a spacewalk, she decided what was most important was to perform the EVA and demonstrate the EMU worked for women.\u00a0\u201cI reckoned the wrong thing to do was to turn the first evolution of a woman doing a spacewalk into a controversy.\u00a0\u2026 I just sucked it up and dealt with it.\u201d\u00a0The suit techs knew the EMU was not quite her size, but she made it work. Later, when assigned to STS-45, one of the techs noticed how poorly the suit fit.\u00a0\u201cWe ought to do something about it.\u00a0It ought to fit you,\u201d he said.\u00a0Sullivan responded, \u201cWe can start that conversation now, but if you think I was going to make that the conversation on the first EVA you\u2019re crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days after Sullivan\u2019s thirty-third birthday, STS-41G launched on October 5, 1984.\u00a0Once in orbit, the flight plan changed quickly.\u00a0A problem with a malfunctioning Ku-band antenna meant that the EVA had to be pushed back to the day before reentry.\u00a0Sullivan worried that the walk might be scrapped, but when they finally began the pre-breathing protocol, she relaxed.\u00a0\u201cChallenger, Houston: You are GO for EVA,\u201d Sullivan recalled, \u201cwere the sweetest words I had ever heard.\u201d\u00a0Sullivan and Leestma\u2019s EVA was short\u2014only three hours and twenty-nine minutes\u2014but busy.\u00a0Leestma demonstrated it was possible to refuel satellites in orbit, while Sullivan monitored his work.\u00a0When he wrapped up his task, Sullivan finally had the opportunity to \u201cdo something, not just watch things.\u201d\u00a0She stowed the malfunctioning antenna and before they went back inside the shuttle, they filmed a scene for an IMAX film, The Dream is Alive\u2014where the two spacewalkers rose from the bottom of the space shuttle\u2019s windows and waved at the crew inside, mimicking the \u201cKilroy Was Here\u201d meme. When filming concluded, Sullivan and Leestma returned to Challenger.\u00a0\u201cMy first spacewalking adventure,\u201d Sullivan wrote in her memoir, \u201cwas over all too soon.\u201d The next day, President Ronald Reagan called<\/a> to ask Sullivan about her experience.\u00a0\u201cKathy, when we met at the White House, I know you were excited about walking in space. Was it what you expected?\u201d he asked.\u00a0Sullivan responded affirmatively and added, \u201cI think it was the most fantastic experience of my life.\u201d<\/p>\nQuestions of Physiology<\/h2>\n
Setting the Record<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/figure>\u201cHello, I\u2019m right here!\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/figure>Space Suit Fit<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/figure>A Walk to Remember<\/h2>\n