It should have been a spacewalk like any other, but what Tracy C. Dyson experienced on Monday, June 24, was fortunately not routine. As she (temporarily) left the International Space Station (ISS), the American NASA astronaut quickly realized that water was gushing out of her spacesuit, causing ice to immediately form at the visor of her helmet. Its mission, which consisted of removing a defective electronic box and collecting samples of microorganisms outside the station, is therefore postponed to a later date.
It was a few moments after putting his suit on battery that Tracy C. Dyson became aware of what was happening, reports the New York Times. It was in fact a leak from the umbilical cooling unit attached to his suit, which forced NASA to immediately cancel the spacewalk that the astronaut was to carry out with his colleague and compatriot Michael R. Barratt .
“An arctic explosion”
In a report also transcribed on the Futurism site, the American space agency details the words of Tracy C. Dyson after his discovery: “There is water everywhere, I had an arctic explosion all over my visor .” She later recounted: “I could see the ice crystals flowing. It was like a machine making snow cones.”
The astronaut reacted well, since she reported the problem and quickly made a strategic withdrawal towards the interior of the ISS. It still took forty-five minutes to re-enter the station and remove the suits. But beforehand, Tracy C. Dyson had taken care to plug the leak, which allowed him to make a relatively peaceful return.
As Futurism reminds us and as we mentioned on June 14, this is the second time in less than two…
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