A spacewalk attempt on the International Space Station (ISS) was dramatically cut short after a space suit water leak occurred inside the airlock. The Extra Vehicular Activity – 90 (EVA-90) spacewalk was begun on 24 June 2024 with the two astronauts Tracy Dyson and Mike Barratt fully suited up inside the ISS Quest airlock. The depressurisation had been completed and the hatch was opened at 1244 GMT. However, a coolant system attach fitting on Dyson’s spacesuit began spouting water globules and the spacewalk was called off. The hatch was closed at 1254 GMT, with repressurisation beginning at 1318 GMT (all times from Jonathan McDowell). The planned seven hour spacewalk was to remove a faulty communications box and collect microbe samples held on the outside of the space station.
Astronauts Dyson and Barratt before the leak. Courtesy: NASA TV
Water leaks on spacesuits have happened before, most famously in July 2013 when ESA Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned due to a leak accumulating water inside his helmet. A similar helmet water pooling incident happened to ESA German astronaut Matthias Maurer in 2022.
Update on 27 June 2024: Collins Aerospace makes the current EMU (Extravehicular Activity Mobility Unit) suits. And so there was shock when it was revealed that by mutual consent that the firm has removed itself from the NASA xEVAS (Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services) contract to produce a follow-on space station spacewalking suit for use on the ISS and later LEO space stations under a contract worth US$97.2 million. This was to include an in-orbit demonstration as part of the first task order. Collins will continue to support NASA’s current EMU suits.
Comment by David Todd: Seradata counts this as a spacewalk given that the hatch was open – our measure of the start of a spacewalk. The depressurisation period was actually 42 minutes. More importantly, NASA had better fix these space suit water leak issues, or there could be a disaster during an EVA. To borrow from WW1 Vice Admiral David Beatty: “There’s something wrong with our bloody spacesuits today”.
