{"id":15782,"date":"2016-01-15T23:36:14","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T15:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacewalk-terminated-due-to-spacesuit-water-leak\/"},"modified":"2016-01-15T23:36:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T15:36:14","slug":"spacewalk-terminated-due-to-spacesuit-water-leak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacewalk-terminated-due-to-spacesuit-water-leak\/","title":{"rendered":"Spacewalk terminated due to spacesuit water leak"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"Astronaut
Astronaut Tim Peake is seen outside the International Space Station during Friday\u2019s spacewalk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flight controllers ordered two astronauts to terminate a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Friday after one of them reported a small amount of water leaking into his space helmet. While not nearly as dangerous as a 2013 helmet leak that threatened to drown an Italian spacewalker, flight controllers took no chances, ordering both men back to the station\u2019s airlock.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the spacesuit worn by Timothy Kopra Friday is the same suit \u2014 serial number 3011 \u2014 worn by European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during the frightening July 2013 EVA, NASA officials said<\/p>\n

The suit was extensively modified in the wake of that incident and used successfully as recently as Dec. 21. It\u2019s not yet known if the cause of the leak Kopra experienced Friday was related in any way to the much more serious problem faced by Parmitano, but extensive troubleshooting is expected to pin down what went wrong this time around.<\/p>\n

Kopra and British astronaut Timothy Peake began the excursion at 7:48 a.m. EST (GMT-5) to kick off a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, the first so far this year and the 12th NASA EVA since the 2013 incident.<\/p>\n

The primary goal of the outing was to replace a presumably shorted out sequential shunt unit, or SSU, at the far right end of the station\u2019s solar power truss truss that failed last November and knocked one of the lab\u2019s eight electrical channels out of action.<\/p>\n

The SSU swap-out went smoothly and a few minutes later, flight controllers reported power channel 1B was back in normal operation. Kopra and Peake then hauled the failed unit back to the airlock, stowed it and went their separate ways to carry out several other lower-priority tasks.<\/p>\n

Peake began laying out cables that will be needed by new docking mechanisms that will be installed later to support visits by Boeing and SpaceX crew ferry craft. Kopra focused on re-installing a non-propulsive vent on the hull of the Tranquility module that was removed last year.<\/p>\n

It was at the end of that task, just a few minutes before noon, that Kopra reported a small bubble of water in his helmet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll continue to monitor,\u201d he called down to mission control in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you just hold right there,\u201d replied astronaut Reid Wiseman in the control room. \u201cLet us just talk this out for a second down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right, sounds good.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, Kopra managed to move he head enough to taste the water, saying it was \u201ccold\u201d and that the bubble was about a half-inch wide and two or three inches long. One other wild card on the table: a carbon dioxide sensor in Kopra\u2019s suit failed earlier, although it\u2019s not yet known whether that was related to the leak.<\/p>\n

A moment after that, flight director Royce Renfrew, following guidelines established in the wake of Parmitano\u2019s frightening EVA, ordered an early end to the spacewalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a terminate case,\u201d Wiseman quickly called. \u201cAnd we\u2019re gathering words for Tim Peake and where we\u2019ll leave you there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, terminate EVA, ingress crew lock, connect SCU (umbilicals),\u201d Kopra confirmed, looking at a checklist attached to his suit. \u201cSo I\u2019m going to bring up all my stuff here, Reid, and start heading back.\u201d<\/p>\n

A call to \u201cterminate\u201d an EVA means the crew should halt work, collect their tools and head back to the airlock. An \u201cabort\u201d call signifies an emergency, and that was not the case today, Renfrew said later.<\/p>\n

In any case, within about a half hour both spacewalkers were back inside the Quest airlock. The hatch was then closed and the compartment was repressurized. The spacewalk officially ended at 12:31 p.m. after a duration of four hours and 43 minutes.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, station commander Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Sergey Volkov helped Kopra back into the roomier external airlock compartment, got his helmet off and collected water samples to help engineers pinpoint the source.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Tim reported the water bubble today, the size was a concern,\u201d said chief astronaut Chris Cassidy, who was outside with Parmitano during the July 2013 incident. After reporting the bubble, Kopra told flight controllers that a water-absorbent pad at the back of his helmet was damp.<\/p>\n

The HAP, or helmet absorption pad, was implemented in the wake of Parmitano\u2019s close call to give spacewalkers early warning of a leak. A straw-like snorkel extending down into the body of the spacesuit is also available now to help a spacewalker breathe during a major water intrusion.<\/p>\n

The water bubble in Kopra\u2019s helmet, along with his report of a damp HAP, \u201csaid there was something going on,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cBut for me, the big hook is the temperature of the water. As soon as he could tell that it\u2019s cold water, there\u2019s something going on where that\u2019s coming from, a source in the backpack, which is a significant concern to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo these procedures really did their job today, the team did their job and we flowed right into a nice, safe return back into the airlock for these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly later reported that Peake\u2019s suit was generally dry throughout, but Kopra\u2019s was clearly damp.<\/p>\n

\u201cTim Kopra was wet, not soaking wet, but just kind of moist up by his shoulders and by his wrists and his LCVG (liquid cooling and ventilation garment) had condensation around it,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cAnd in the ventilation line and water connector, there was moisture.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the spacewalk by Parmitano and Cassidy on July 16, 2013, water backed up into Parmitano\u2019s helmet, quickly obscuring his vision and expanding around his head. He made it back to the station\u2019s airlock, but it was a life-threatening malfunction.<\/p>\n

In the wake of that incident, NASA carried out extensive troubleshooting and eventually blamed the water backup on a clogged filter in the suit\u2019s water cooling system. Refurbished components were launched to the station, including a refurbished fan-separator module for the backpack of the suit worn by Parmitano and Kopra.<\/p>\n

Along with new procedures to inspect and test spacesuits before an EVA, NASA also developed the HAP and the emergency snorkel to provide warning an an unobscured breathing line in case of a major leak. During spacewalks, flight controllers periodically ask the astronauts to report on the HAP, which can be felt by simply tilting the head back inside the helmet.<\/p>\n

Those procedures paid off Friday, giving the crew plenty of time to get back to the Quest airlock before the leak in Kopra\u2019s helmet could worsen.<\/p>\n

Up until the leak was reported, the astronauts had been sailing through a virtually problem-free spacewalk. Peake is the second British citizen to fly in space, the first to visit the International Space Station and the first to carry out a spacewalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cTim, it\u2019s really cool seeing that Union Jack go outside since it\u2019s explored all over the world,\u201d Kelly radioed at the start of the spacewalk. \u201cNow it\u2019s explored space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Scott,\u201d Peake replied. \u201cIt\u2019s great to be wearing it. A privilege, a proud moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evan former Beatle Paul McCarney chimed in, tweeting: \u201cGood luck @astro_timpeake we\u2019re all watching, no pressure! Wishing you a happy stroll outdoors in the universe. All the best, PMc #spacewalk<\/p>\n

The astronauts had no problems replacing the failed voltage regulator and flight controllers later reported the newly-installed unit was operating normally.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet known what impact the leak in Kopra\u2019s helmet might have on downstream plans. The next NASA spacewalk is tentatively planned for May, but that will depend on a variety of factors, including upcoming cargo launches and the spacesuit troubleshooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Astronaut Tim Peake is seen outside the International Space Station during Friday\u2019s spacewalk. Flight controllers ordered two astronauts to terminate a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Friday after one of them reported a small amount of water leaking into his space helmet. While not nearly as dangerous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3826,3827,3677,717,1547,3680,3727],"class_list":["post-15782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-emu","tag-eva-35","tag-expedition-46","tag-international-space-station","tag-spacewalk","tag-tim-kopra","tag-tim-peake"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}