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NASA says its next spacewalk will be delayed indefinitely until engineers understand more about what caused a refrigerant leak on June 24.
NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson had a brief spacesuit leak a month ago while still aboard the International Space Station (ISS). She and Mike Barrett had just opened the door for a 6.5-hour spacewalk for maintenance activities, when showers of ice particles erupted from the space suit’s connection to the ISS. The spacewalk was suspended, but the astronauts were not in any danger, NASA has emphasized.
“That spaceway ended early because of a water leak in the service suit and cooling umbilical; that’s the site attached to ISS,” station program manager Dana Weigel, of NASA, told reporters in a teleconference on Monday Wednesday (July 17). (Astronauts’ spacesuits remain connected to the ISS’s life support systems through that umbilical until they exit the patch.)
“We are still looking at the cause of the water leak, and what we want to do to recover,” said Weigel. “We’re going to look for the next opportunity for where we want to do the spacewalk. It’s not time-critical or urgent, so we’re going to find the best, logical place to do it to put.”
NASA’s extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) spacesuit has a design used for spacewalks that dates back to the 1970s, and was first used during the space shuttle mission STS-6 in April 1983. The legacy of long-distance flights is reliable at the EMU: the spacesuit was used. for every shuttle spacewalk, it allowed crews to service the Hubble Space Telescope, and also helped astronauts build the ISS.
The AEA has interchangeable parts that can be replaced and serviced. Having said that, in recent years, it has been prone to periodic coolant leaks for various reasons. NASA suspended spacewalks for seven months in March 2022 after water was found in a spacesuit helmet, for example. And an incident in July 2013 required an investigative report and additional months of spaceflight suspension, after Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet filled with water during a spacewalk.
The new generations of NASA and private industry spacesuits are emphasizing greater flexibility with updated materials, along with improved sizing to accommodate all genders. The AEA is biased towards larger sizes and males, due to being designed in an era when most astronauts were male recruits from the then almost unisex armed forces. In June, Collins Aerospace backed out of its contract to design a newer ISS suit, saying its development schedule would not support the space station’s schedule and NASA’s mission objectives.”
Related: ISS astronauts perform ‘spacewalk review’ after space coolant leak
The cause of the latest leak is not yet known, but the astronauts aboard Expedition 71 have performed several troubleshooting hours in recent weeks and NASA is reviewing that information.
NASA originally planned three spacewalks in June and July, but shortened that to two after a June 13 spacewalk was suspended due to “spacesuit discomfort.” The second of the series of reviews was originally expected for July 2, but as Weigel indicated July 17, spaceway requirements will be generally examined in the coming months.
Spacewalking is among the “dynamic activities” hosted by the ISS, Weigel noted in the same conference. Such activities happen about every week or 10 days, she said, when they include “something like a visiting vehicle going up or unlocking, [or] spacewalk, [or] robotics.” (The ISS has a number of robotic arms and devices that perform maintenance and science work, often under control from the ground.)
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Schedules in space are always in flux, but the past few weeks have been particularly uncertain for ISS planning.
The mission of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft to the ISS for its first astronaut test flight from May 6 was initially delayed due to a helium leak, which was extensively analyzed and debugged by NASA and Boeing before launch was approved. (Such development efforts are often fraught with uncertainty as the new spacecraft and human systems are launched.)
After the ISS arrived on June 6, the 10-day Crew Flight Test mission was extended indefinitely due to thruster issues that delayed docking. Starliner is still rated to leave the ISS in an emergency, but engineers are analyzing ground tests conducted last week to better analyze the performance of the Starliner system before it is authorized for six-month operational missions. early 2025.
NASA’s portion of the Expedition 71 crew arrived in March as part of SpaceX’s Crew-8, riding a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket into space. Team-9 was due to arrive in mid-August. Although that time is still on NASA’s display, all launches of Falcon 9 were suspended last week after a problem on the second stage of the Starlink satellite launch.
SpaceX has petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration to allow launches to go ahead, but NASA says it wants to conduct its own review before SpaceX authorizes sending astronauts or cargo to the ISS. (Different versions of Falcon 9 are used for astronauts and satellites.)
