Moonwalk aborted after helmet leak
In one of the most harrowing spacewalks in years, an astronaut had to rush back into the International Space Station on Tuesday after a mysterious water leak inside his helmet robbed him of the ability to speak or hear and could have caused him to choke.
Italian Luca Parmitano seemed fine after the dangerous episode, which might have been caused by a leaky drinking bag. His spacewalking partner, American Christopher Cassidy, had to help him inside after NASA quickly aborted the spacewalk.
No one — neither the astronauts in orbit nor flight controllers in Houston — breathed easily until Parmitano was back inside and his helmet was yanked off.
“He looks miserable. But OK,” Cassidy assured everyone.
It was the first time in years that a spacewalk came to such an abrupt halt and the first time since NASA’s Gemini program in the mid-1960s that a spacewalker became so incapacitated. Spacewalking always carries high risk; a puncture by a micrometeorite or sharp edge, if big enough, could result in instant death.
The two astronauts were outside barely an hour, performing routine cable work on their second spacewalk in eight days, when Parmitano reported the leak. It progressively worsened as the minutes ticked by, drenching the back of his head, then his eyes, nose and, finally, mouth. He could have choked on the floating drops of water.
The source of the leak wasn’t immediately known but a potential culprit was the 32-ounce drink bag that astronauts sip from during lengthy spacewalks, although Parmitano later reported the leaking water tasted odd. Water also is piped through the long underwear worn under a spacesuit for cooling.
His last words before becoming mum were, “It’s a lot of water.”
At first, Parmitano, 36, a former test pilot and Italy’s first spacewalker, thought it was sweat accumulating on the back of his bald head. But he was repeatedly assured it was not sweat. He agreed. “How much can I sweat?” he wondered aloud. It was only his second spacewalk.
Cassidy suggested it might be water from his drink bag; it looked like half had leaked out.
The water eventually got into Parmitano’s eyes. That’s when NASA ordered the two men back inside. Then the water drenched his nose and mouth, and he had trouble hearing on the radio lines.
Cassidy quickly cleaned up the work site once Parmitano was back in the air lock, then followed him in.
The three Russians and one American who anxiously monitored the drama from inside hustled to remove Parmitano’s helmet. They clustered around him, eight hands pulling off his helmet and using towels to mop his head. Balls of water floated away.
Parmitano blinked hard several times but otherwise looked fine as he gestured with his hands to show his crewmates where the water had crept around his head.