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Two American astronauts abandoned plans to leave the International Space Station for maintenance on Monday due to a spacesuit malfunction.
NASA officials canceled the spacewalk because of a water leak in the cooling unit of one of the astronauts’ spacesuits.
The leak, which affected the suit worn by NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, emerged shortly after the suits were transferred to the battery, shortly before leaving the space station.
The spacesuits’ cooling unit is designed to keep wearers at a comfortable temperature while performing their work. Dyson and his crewmate Mike Barratt were created to remove a faulty electronics box from a communications antenna on the exterior of the space station.
“Right now, I’m comfortable, but I feel a little hot,” Dyson was heard saying on a live stream of the event after the spacewalk was canceled around 9 a.m. ET.
Dyson later expressed concerns that the water leak might have affected the electrical connectors.
“There’s still water gushing out,” Dyson said at one point. “We can assume that water entered that connector, electrical connector.”
NASA then worked to get Dyson back into the space station from the airlock, the gateway to the space station’s exterior, while his suit remained battery powered.
The crew was not in danger at any time during the incident, according to NASA.
The spacewalk was scheduled to begin Monday morning and last about 6.5 hours, according to NASA.
The spacewalk delay is just the latest in a series of setbacks to International Space Station operations in recent weeks.
This marks the second spacewalk in recent days that has been abruptly canceled due to spacesuit issues.
Authorities canceled a spacewalk scheduled for June 13 that included Dyson and Matthew Dominick because of “a spacesuit discomfort issue” with Dominick’s spacesuit. NASA declined to provide further details on the matter to protect the astronaut’s privacy.
In addition to Monday’s aborted spacewalk, the federal agency plans to conduct another on July 2 — before giving the green light to Boeing’s Starliner capsule to undock from the orbiting laboratory and return home.
The Starliner spacecraft performed its first crewed test flight to the space station. But the vehicle encountered several major problems during the first leg of its journey, including helium leaks and thruster outages, which delayed its return.
It’s not yet clear whether the decision to cancel Monday’s spacewalk will further delay Starliner’s return.
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