NASA astronaut’s ‘slice’ on glove sparks concern before spacewalk

By Dean Murray

There was concern before a spacewalk on Thursday, May 1, when an astronaut's glove appeared to have a slice in it.

NASA mission control asked Anne McClain aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to focus her helmet camera on the glove prior to her exiting the orbital platform.

McClain and fellow astronaut Nichole Ayers were due to step outside the ISS to complete station upgrades.

Anne McClain can be heard reporting "If I open it, it's directly straight slit. If I open it up, I can see a few strands. They're not sticking out. I can just see them kind of separated.

"If I bend it, it is at the corner of where the finger bends. When I bend it, it opens up."

Mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, were tasked with examining the live feed to assess the extent of the damage to the glove.

Flight controllers and teams at the facility, including flight director Diana Trillo, could be seen huddling around a monitor as they discussed the issue.

The damage was not deemed a risk to the spacewalk and McClain and Ayers were able to spend 5 hours and 44 minutes outside the ISS.

They completed their primary objectives, including relocating a space station communications antenna and the initial mounting bracket installation steps for an ISS Roll Out Solar Array (iROSA) that will arrive on a future SpaceX commercial resupply services mission.

It was the third spacewalk for McClain and the first for Ayers, and the 275th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.