Actually, come to think about it, there was a kickstep, it was just that no one used it for doing fills, too inconvenient to move around with the cables and umbilicals and such all about. Then she was the only woman on her telescope, at that time the three guys were all taller and had no problem. She managed, and eventually the process was improved. While the telescope wasn't 'brand new' at this time, it was still kind of young and a sort of a continuous refinement of process is always going on.

There's a couple of things that you need to do where you simply must be taller. This one wasn't quite that way, the others were. The scary bit is when she has to get up on a ladder to reset the atomic clock for the lunar laser ranging program. It's at the top of the intermediate level, a good 20' up, and in a very awkward place. If she can't get a spotter she'll contact another astronomer via computer chat and tell them that if I don't say something in chat within 5 minutes to call the observatory and tell them that she's in trouble on the intermediate level.