By the evening edition.
An astronaut from the International Space Station had to urgently return to the International Space Station (ISS) this Monday, June 24, 2024. In the middle of a mission, Tracy C. Dyson realized that her suit was leaking. We tell you.
Around her, space extends as far as the eye can see. More than 400 kilometers from Earth, Tracy C. Dyson launches outside the International Space Station (ISS). The American astronaut has a mission: she must remove a defective electronic box and collect samples of microorganisms. Routine. But everything does not go as planned. What happened ?
Monday June 24, 2024, the American astronaut and her colleague Michael R. Barratt are preparing to leave the ISS. They get ready, check the tightness of their suits and move towards the exit. Around 8:30 a.m. (Northeast United States time), the station’s airlock hatch opens.
Read also: Why does the ISS remain in orbit around Earth?
“There is water everywhere”
So far, nothing unusual. Still in the airlock, open to the void, Tracy C. Dyson notices an anomaly. The visor of his helmet is covered in ice crystals. Worried, she wipes the protective glass and realizes that water is leaking from her suit. More precisely, at the umbilical cooling unit attached to his outfit. “These connections provide electricity, oxygen and water when the astronauts are in the airlock”explains the American newspaper The New York Times .
The leak was triggered when Tracy C. Dyson unplugged the unit. She immediately raised the alarm: “There’s water everywhere, I had an arctic blast on my visor.” The mission, which was to last six and a half hours, was then immediately stopped. NASA controllers, based in Houston, Texas, ordered him to return.
After taking the time to reconnect the umbilical unit to stop the leak, Tracy C. Dyson and Michael R. Barratt turn around. Too bad for the defective electronic box. At 9:17 a.m. (US time), the two astronauts leave the airlock and return to the ISS. Their spacewalk lasted exactly 31 minutes, according to a press release published by NASA, which states that the astronauts were never in danger.
Read also: NASA wants to clean up space… using large “trash bags”, here’s how
Second release canceled in a month
This is not the first time an incident like this has occurred. Already this month, another Tracy C. Dyson mission was canceled. On June 13, with Matthew Dominick, another NASA astronaut currently aboard the space station, she was scheduled to carry out a spacewalk. But the latter reported a “spacesuit discomfort issue”reports The New York Times, effectively canceling the mission.
Read also: They left to repair the International Space Station, but dropped their tools in space
Spacesuit malfunctions are rare, but serious accidents do occasionally occur. In 2013, Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency, almost drowned. Following a blocked ventilation pump, water accumulated in his helmet.
