Astronaut Anne McClain may have missed out on a historic all-female spacewalk last week, when spacesuit-sizing issues prevented her from working with crewmate Christina Koch outside the International Space Station. But it looks like she can already laugh at the experience.
One day after the spacewalk on Friday (March 29), with NASA astronaut Nick Hague replacing McClain, "Saturday Night Live" ran a Weekend Update with comedian Aidy Bryant portraying a visibly disappointed McClain still trying to stay upbeat and toe the NASA line.
"I'm not mad, you know. They can make a special spacesuit for a dog, or a special spacesuit for a monkey," Bryant, clad in a blue astronaut jumpsuit, says as McClain. "But a human girl, only one gets to be moon queen. And so, yeah. I'm actually happy...as...hell."
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I am still laughing about this, and Aidy, your uniform looks impeccable! https://t.co/KmeqFfkN8UApril 1, 2019
NASA replaced McClain with Hague on Friday's spacewalk because only one medium-size spacesuit was ready for the event. McClain wore the medium-size in a March 22 spacewalk with Hague, with Koch donning the suit on Friday.
"To all the little girls out there, I just want to say: You can all become astronauts, just not at the same time," Bryant adds.
McClain, who has said it was her decision to swap places on the spacewalk, apparently enjoyed Bryant's take on her.
"I am still laughing about this," McClain wrote on Twitter today (April 1). "And Aidy, your uniform looks impeccable!"
McClain is now scheduled to venture outside the space station on Monday (April 8) with crewmate David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency. It will be her second spacewalk after the March 22 outing with Hague. All three spacewalks are aimed at replacing batteries for the space station's solar arrays.
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Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.
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