Two NASA astronauts were preparing to leave the International Space Station (ISS) for a second attempt at a spacewalk, but it was canceled again due to a worrisome spacesuit malfunction.
NASA was forced to cancel a spacewalk on Monday due to a water leak in the umbilical service and cooling unit in astronaut Tracy Dyson’s spacesuit. “There’s water everywhere,” Dyson can be heard saying during the live broadcast from the ISS, pointing to an alarming malfunction with the space station’s old suits that has endangered other astronauts in the past. NASA is in desperate need of new spacesuits for its astronauts, but in a disturbing development, the company contracted to design the suits has just pulled out of the deal.
The two astronauts, Dyson and Mike Barratt, had not yet left the airlock when the case arose. However, the airlock had to be re-pressurized as the pair exited towards the vacuum of space. Fortunately, the astronauts were safe.
This was the second spacewalk postponement in a week due to a suit problem; on June 13, another spacewalk was canceled due to “issues of spacesuit concern,” according to NASA.
Astronauts aboard the ISS are spacesuit malfunction direction procedure revisions, troubleshooting and inspecting suit components. A future spacewalk is scheduled for July 2, pending ongoing investigations.
Clearly, NASA astronauts need some new suits; space suits currently in use are more than 40 years old and overdue for a major upgrade. The space agency also appears to be running out of fully functional spacesuits aboard the ISS, with only 18 usable units currently available for use by astronauts on the space station, according to a 2017 REPORT.
In May 2022, NASA spacewalks suspended outside the ISS following a series of potentially life-threatening incidents of water leaking into astronauts’ helmets during their spacewalks. NASA astronaut Raja Chari and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer were installing hoses on a radiator beam valve module outside the space station on March 23, 2022 when Maurer – who was on his first spacewalk – noticed some water and moisture inside his visor towards the end of the seven-hour spacewalk.
“NASA is thinking about the risk posture for these suits, which are aging [spacesuit] is currently not prohibited for planned EVAs pending an investigation into what they reveal,” said Susan Helms, a former NASA astronaut serving on NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel at the time .Space Agency resumed spacewalks on the ISS immediately following a leak investigation.
This was not the first incident involving excess water. In 2013, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano noticed a water leak inside his helmet which forced an early shutdown of the spacewalk. Parmitano was able to re-enter the ISS airlock, but had difficulty breathing as 1.5 liters of water had formed inside his helmet. “I feel it covering the sponge in my headphones and I wonder if I’m going to lose audio contact. Water has also almost completely covered the front of my visor, sticking to it and obscuring my vision,” Parmitano said in a huff. blog post Later.
The same suit worn by Parmitano nearly drowned another astronaut two years later. NASA astronaut Terry Virts, wearing spacesuit #3005, noticed water droplets floating freely and a wet absorbent pad in his helmet at the conclusion of his spacewalk.
NASA is working with its commercial partners to develop new spacesuits for its astronauts on the ISS, but it’s taking longer than anticipated. In June 2022, the space agency awarded the prize contracts with Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to build spacesuits with a combined potential value of $3.5 billion. The suits were supposed to debut in 2025, but Collins Aerospace is looking to back out of the contract, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.
“After a thorough evaluation, Collins Aerospace and NASA mutually agreed to outline the mission orders of the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS),” the company wrote in a statement to SpaceNews. It’s not clear how NASA will proceed from here.
In one REPORT released in January 2019, NASA’s Space Safety Advisory Panel reviewed the growing challenges of spacesuits. “It is an undeniable fact that the 40-year-old EMUs used in ISS operations are reaching the end of their useful lives,” the report said. “NASA cannot sustain the necessary and continuous operations in low Earth orbit without fully functional EVA suits.”
For more space flights in your life, follow us X and bookmark Gizmodo’s dedicated Spaceflight Page.