ISS Crew Forgets Spacesuits in April 1 EVA

By Nancy Atkinson - April 1, 2010 at 2:53 PM UTC | Missions
ISS-april-1-bigger.jpg

[/caption]

The crew of the International Space Station sent down an image of an unscheduled spacewalk that allegedly took place earlier today. "We wanted to welcome you guys to April, and hopefully we brought you guys some smiles and not a lot of nervousness," T.J. Creamer radioed down to Mission Control in Houston.

"Yes, you welcomed us to April, and you did it in a grand way!" replied veteran astronaut Shannon Lucid, serving as Capcom. "You have a real problem, but you know it's outside our ability to help you."

Creamer and crewmates Soichi Noguchi and Oleg Kotav assured Lucid they were wearing eye protection and Lucid wondered if they put sunscreen on. "Getting vitamin D is great, but don't stay out too long," she said.

"Oh, Mom can't we stay out longer?" Creamer joked.

This image is reminiscent of a picture fellow journalist

Rachel Hobson

took of me while we were at Kennedy Space Center, below. There was a model of the newly installed Cupola in the KSC press room, and several journalists took turns taking pictures of each other, and the images ended up looking similar to what the ISS crew created today. The astronauts obviously have some digital image editing software on board. [caption id="attachment_61472" align="aligncenter" width="435" caption="Nancy at KSC for the STS-130 launch. Image by Rachel Hobson. "]

[/caption]

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com