Spacewalk on the ISS is completed ahead of schedule
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration has decided to cancel today's output astronauts into space due to water leakage in the suit of one of them, according to ITAR-TASS .
On Tuesday at about 16:00 MSK U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy and his Italian colleague Luke Parmitano from the crew of the International Space Station began a spacewalk. One of their tasks was to prepare the station for the arrival of the Russian multifunctional laboratory module, scheduled for later this year.
After about an hour after the start of the cold station Parmitano informed about the appearance of water in the back of his helmet. Initially, he suggested that the problem may be related to the helmet fogging, but the amount of fluid has been gradually increased and it became clear that it was a leak.
"I have a very wet head and it seems to me that the water becomes more and more", - said Parmitano managers spacewalk in U.S. Houston. Water even made it to face the Italian astronaut and damaged communication system suit.
In this regard, NASA has decided to suspend work in open space and return astronauts on board. Currently, they are on the ISS and, as reported by the agency that they were all right. Examining the problem space suit, Cassidy suggested that the leak could have come from a container that stores drinking water. According to the American astronaut, emerged a total of about half a liter of liquid.
Cassidy and Parmitano had to stay out in the cold station 6 hours and 15 minutes. In addition to preparing for the arrival of the Russian module that Cassidy and Parmitano started back during a previous spacewalk last week, the astronauts had to complete the installation of additional components of the ISS electrical supply, replace the video camera on the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo" to move the components of the wireless television camera and perform other tasks.
NASA researchers have been unable to determine the cause of the water leakage Italian astronaut in a spacesuit. On Tuesday told a press conference at the Space Center, Lyndon B. Johnson in Houston / Texas / NASA spokesman Kenneth Todd. "At the moment we do not fully understand the cause of the problem. In the next day or two, our specialists will try to find out what happened on orbit," - said Todd.
According to him, the urgent need for re spacewalks to complete the work on the outside of the International Space Station is not, therefore, from the experts enough time to establish the exact cause of the leak.
In turn, the head of the program spacewalks Karina Eversley indicated that there were two of the most probable source of the leak - the capacity for potable water and cooling suit. Container with Drinking water contains about one liter of liquid, the cooling system - 3.7 l. According to NASA, a space suit Parmitano got 1 to 1.5 liters of water, and most of it was wearing a helmet.
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