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NASA spacesuit cleared of water leaks ahead of weekend spacewalk

NASA spacesuit cleared of water leaks ahead of weekend spacewalk

This week when an American astronaut returned back inside the safety of the International Space Station after having completed a nearly flawless near 7 hour spacewalk, NASA was confronted with a potentially life-threatening problem it thought it had solved two years prior.

As NASA astronaut Terry Virts was re-pressurizing within the Quest airlock on Wednesday after having just finished a cable routing job on the outside of the orbiting laboratory, he reported a water leak within his spacesuit helmet.

While NASA says Virts was in no apparent danger, their engineers on the ground spent the better part of two days investigating what had happened.

This is not the first time such a nightmare leak in a spacesuit helmet has occurred during a spacewalk in recent years. In fact, the last time it happened, the astronaut nearly drowned.

Back in July 2013 Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano had to abort his spacewalk when he reported his helmet was flooding, saying he had water around his ears and eyes, which made it difficult for him to see and hear, and could have easily gotten into his mouth and throat, choking him.

NASA knows that there are only two known sources of water in their spacesuits — a 1 gallon cooling system woven into their onesie-style long underwear and a 32 ounce drinking bag.

But water leaks are just one of a few nightmare scenarios that NASA and space walkers may encounter and train for.

Suit punctures causing catastrophic leaks are always a threat as micro-meteors or tiny shards of metal — even the size of a grain of sand — can easily poke through all the layers of a spacesuit.

Decompression sickness, also known as the bends, can occur if an astronaut puts on a spacesuit too quickly and nitrogen bubbles form in his or her blood, causing severe cramping, paralysis and even death.

There’s also the threat of accidental detachment of the tether that connects space walkers to the mother spaceship. Thankfully, NASA suits are equipped with mini-jet packs that can allow the astronaut to make their way back over short distances, if that does occur.

Despite the new leak, NASA believes it has solved this new round of problems and has given the green light for the crew to head out on another spacewalk this weekend.

Just this morning NASA cleared Virt’s spacesuit for the Sunday jaunt where he will help finish routing hundreds of feet of cable. The work is vital for the future of the station program as it will allow future crews on commercial spacecraft access to a new docking port.

Later this year, SpaceX cargo ships will be delivering special docking adapters that will allow private flights from SpaceX and Boeing to deliver astronauts to the station in a few years’ time.