NASA has cut short a spacewalk at the International Space Station after an astronaut reported a leak in his spacesuit helmet.
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NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra caused concern when he reported a small water bubble and then a film of water inside his helmet. Kopra and Peak, with the help of astronaut Scott Kelly, will now retrieve a water sample from the spacesuit in an effort to determine how the water formed inside of Kopra’s helmet.
Tim Peake lifted his space suit helmet visor to pose for a picture with one of the space station’s electricity generating solar panels as a backdrop. Peake became the first astronaut representing Britain to walk in space when he left the ISS on Friday to fix a power station problem, generating huge interest back in his homeland.
Tim Peake uses the reflective coating of his space suit helmet to capture the ultimate space selfie.
Peake is scheduled for more spacewalks during his six-month stay on the ISS and should be outside the station again in the next month or so.
Kopra and Peake had replaced a failed voltage regulator in the station’s power system shortly after leaving the station’s airlock at around 8 a.m. EST/1300 GMT. They had just 31 minutes, the amount of nighttime on that particular swing around the world, to complete the job.
Thankfully, in Kopra’s case, there was only around 15cc of water in the suit, which Peake viewed and described as “less than golfball-size”.
Kelly and astronauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Russian Federation are also on board the station.
Lead flight director Royce Renfrew, who called an early end to the spacewalk, stressed that the situation was not an emergency and insisted neither spacewalker was in danger.
Mission Control said the spare – dubbed Dusty for its 17-year tenure in orbit – appeared to be working properly.
Both the astronauts were able to complete the primary mission. “Now it’s explored space”. “Wishing you a happy stroll outdoors in the universe”, British musician Sir Paul McCartney said on Twitter.
A handful of previous spacewalkers held dual U.S.-British citizenship, but flew as Americans for NASA.
Major Peake, 43, from Chichester, West Sussex, who is on a six-month mission with the European Space Agency (ESA), earlier told of his pride in stepping into space with the Union flag on his space suit.
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Parmitano’s spacewalking partner that day, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, rushed into Mission Control and offered assistance Friday, as soon as he learned what happened to Peake.
