Astronauts are conducting a “spacewalk review” in orbit after a coolant leak canceled a planned excursion on Monday (June 24), NASA officials said in an update.
NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mike Barratt aborted a spacewalk while still in the International Space Station (ISS) hatch due to a coolant leak in Dyson’s spacesuit. NASA said today (June 25) that the crew is reviewing what to do next, in consultation with mission control. “Barratt began Tuesday morning troubleshooting Dyson’s spacesuit and inspecting suit components,” NASA officials wrote in a brief update that mentioned “spacewalk inspection” in the title. “Afterwards, [Barratt] joined Dyson for ongoing procedures reviews with fellow astronauts Matthew Dominique and Jeanette Epps for future spacewalks.”
For now, NASA’s next spacewalk is still scheduled for July 2 after Monday’s aborted 31-minute excursion that was supposed to last 6.5 hours. What will happen next will be understood by the investigation, which is still ongoing. After past coolant leaks in orbit, spacewalks have sometimes been suspended for months.
The ISS crew reported “literally water everywhere” in the hatch and a “blizzard” of ice flakes visible just outside, but everyone turned to the situation in an instant. The astronauts were never in danger, NASA officials repeatedly emphasized during the live broadcast on NASA TV.
Investigating the cause may take some time. The astronauts were seen on the show yesterday taking pictures of the two suits, including the umbilical servicing and cooling area (SCU) of Dyson’s suit, where the water appeared to be coming from. The SCU is designed to connect to the ISS airlock while the astronauts are in the hatch preparing for the final disconnection stages for the EVA.
Coolant leaks have occurred several times in recent years. In March 2022, for example, NASA put a seven-month hiatus on spacewalks after water was found in a spacesuit helmet.
A more serious incident occurred in 2013 when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet filled with water during an extravehicular activity (EVA), necessitating a rapid return to the hatch. A subsequent report from a NASA investigation suggested several means of preventing this from happening again, which agency officials began implementing in future spacewalks.
The Boeing Starliner spacecraft was expected to leave the ISS sometime after July 2, ending its first mission with astronauts that launched on June 5, in part because of a spacewalk planned for that day. However, the Starliner remains docked pending inspection and testing of its propulsion systems and helium supply after problems were discovered on June 6 that delayed its arrival at the ISS. NASA Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams participated in that testing and are now on other ISS maintenance duties, according to a NASA update on Tuesday.
Starliner’s roughly 10-day mission to the ISS has now lasted nearly three weeks and counting, although both Boeing and NASA stress that the nature of development missions is that they often fall outside of planned schedules due to the unexpected. Part of the rationale for extending the mission is to observe the behavior of the service module, since that part (with most of the fuel and power) will separate during landing.
The spacecraft is technically rated to stay at the station for 45 days, according to previous comments by NASA’s Crew Commercial Manager Steve Stich. NASA has promised a full update in the near future on Starliner. That said, the Starliner crew could still deorbit it if necessary; NASA emphasizes that the spacecraft is designed to leave quickly if an ISS emergency requiring evacuation occurs.
