NASA Prepares for ISS Spacewalk Resumption in 2025 following Frightening Spacesuit Leak Incidents
After a lengthy break, NASA astronauts are eager to exit the International Space Station (ISS) once more and perform some orbital work.
NASA plans to restart spacewalks in 2025, following a suit leak that led to the agency halting extravehicular activity in June to tackle the problem. At a press conference this week, Bill Spetch, NASA's ISS operations and integration manager, informed reporters that the next set of spacewalks are scheduled "early next year," as Space.com reported.
"It's all about finding the right moment," Spetch noted. NASA managed to replace a seal and the umbilical cord connecting the suit to the ISS, and the leaky suit was successfully repressurized, according to Spetch.
Let's hope this solves the issue, which could pose a serious danger to the spacewalking astronauts. In June, two NASA astronauts were prepared to leave the ISS for a spacewalk. However, the mission was suddenly cancelled due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit on astronaut Tracy Dyson's suit. "There's water everywhere," Dyson could be heard saying during the live ISS feed.
Unfortunately, leaky spacesuits have been a recurring issue on the ISS. In May 2022, NASA suspended spacewalks outside the ISS after a series of potentially dangerous incidents involving 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—on his first spacewalk—noticed some water and dampness inside his visor towards the end of the seven-hour spacewalk.
The issue was not a new one. In 2013, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano discovered a water leak inside his helmet that forced him to cut the spacewalk short. Parmitano managed to re-enter the ISS airlock but struggled to breathe as 1.5 liters of water had pooled inside his helmet. "I feel it covering the sponge on my earphones and I wonder whether I'll lose audio contact. The water has also almost completely covered the front of my visor, sticking to it and obscuring my vision," Parmitano remembered.
The very same suit Parmitano wore twice nearly drowned another astronaut two years later. NASA astronaut Terry Virts, wearing spacesuit #3005, noticed droplets of free-floating water and a damp absorption pad in his helmet at the end of his spacewalk.
Clearly, NASA has a spacesuit problem. The suits aboard the ISS are over 40 years old and are fast approaching the end of their service life. NASA's extravehicular mobility units (EMU) were originally designed in the 1970s for its space shuttle program. Recently, NASA turned to its commercial partners for new suit development, giving contracts to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace in June 2022 with a combined worth of $3.5 billion. Collins Aerospace is lagging behind in its work, while Axiom debuted the new suits last year.
The spacesuits are intended for use on upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon but will first fly to the ISS for a trial run. For now, the astronauts will continue conducting spacewalks in low Earth orbit while wearing the outdated suits, but the temporary fixes should keep them safe.
The NASA astronauts are looking forward to utilizing advanced technologies in the new extravehicular mobility units, which are crucial for their future space explorations beyond the International Space Station, particularly on the Artemis missions to the Moon. The development of these innovative spacesuits by NASA's commercial partners is a significant step towards addressing the decades-old suit issue responsible for several leaky incidents.
