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Two US astronauts abandoned plans to exit the International Space Station for maintenance on Monday due to a spacesuit malfunction.
NASA officials canceled the spacewalk because of a water leak in the cooling unit of one of the spacesuits of one of the astronauts.
The leak, which affected the suit worn by NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, appeared shortly after the suits were transferred to the battery. just before they left the space station.
The cooling unit in the space suits is designed to keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature while doing their work. Dyson and her crewmate, Mike Barratt, were set to remove a faulty electronics box from a communications antenna on the outside of the space station.
“Right now, I’m comfortable, but I feel a little warm,” Dyson was heard saying on a live stream of the event after the spacewalk was called off around 9 a.m. ET.
Dyson later expressed concern that the water leak may have affected the electrical connectors.
“There’s still water shooting out,” Dyson said at one point. “We can assume that water got into that connector, the electrical connector.”
NASA then worked to bring Dyson back inside the space station from the airlock, the gateway to the outside of the space station, while her suit remained on battery power.
According to NASA, the crew was not in danger at any time during the incident.
According to NASA, the spacewalk would start Monday morning and last about 6.5 hours.
The delayed spacewalk is just the latest in a string of setbacks surrounding operations on the International Space Station in recent weeks.
This marks the second spacewalk in recent days to be abruptly canceled due to problems with the spacesuits.
Officials canceled a spacewalk scheduled for June 13, which included Dyson and Matthew Dominick, due to “a spacesuit discomfort issue” with Dominick’s suit. NASA declined to provide more details about the case to protect the astronaut’s privacy.
In addition to Monday’s aborted spacewalk, the federal agency has intended to conduct another on July 2 — before giving Boeing’s Starliner capsule the green light to detach from the orbiting lab and return home.
The Starliner spacecraft has been on its first crewed test flight to the space station. But the vehicle ran into several key problems during the first part of its journey, including helium leaks and experiencing thruster failures, which have delayed its return.
It is not yet clear whether the decision to cancel Monday’s spacewalk will further delay the Starliner’s return.
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