NASA plans to renew spacewalks on the house station in 2025 after a leaky spacesuit suspended these actions in June.
“We’re planning our subsequent set … early subsequent yr,” Invoice Spetch, operations and integration supervisor of NASA’s Worldwide House Station (ISS) program, stated of spacewalks throughout a press convention Oct. 25 following the conclusion of SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission to the orbiting complicated.
A seal and umbilical connecting the spacesuit to the ISS was changed, and the affected swimsuit repressurized with success, he added. “It is only a matter of when is the best timing,” Spetch stated, noting that spacewalks are scheduled in between spacecraft arrivals and departures, in addition to astronaut analysis actions.
NASA suspended all ISS spacewalks with its spacesuit indefinitely after company astronaut Tracy Dyson skilled a quick coolant leak June 24 earlier than leaving the hatch of the house station. (Russia, the opposite majority house station accomplice, makes use of an unbiased set of spacesuits referred to as Orlan.)
Associated: NASA delays ISS spacewalks indefinitely to analyze spacesuit coolant leak
Dyson and fellow NASA astronaut Mike Barratt opened the door for what was anticipated to be a 6.5-hour spacewalk centered on upkeep. Minutes later, nevertheless, ice particles erupted from a spacesuit connection to the ISS.
The astronauts have been by no means in any hazard, NASA has stated, nor have been the spacewalk duties wanted instantly.
“We’ll go search for the subsequent alternative for the place we need to do the spacewalk. It isn’t time-critical or pressing, and so we’ll discover the very best, logical place to place it,” station program supervisor Dana Weigel, of NASA, advised reporters in a teleconference on July 17.
Dyson’s swimsuit was one in every of NASA’s extravehicular mobility items (EMU) first designed within the Nineteen Seventies and used in the course of the house shuttle program within the Nineteen Eighties. The swimsuit has a protracted flight heritage, together with serving to to construct the ISS and repair the Hubble House Telescope.
Elements of the EMU might be swapped out as wanted, however the swimsuit design however has had a couple of coolant leaks lately. For instance, NASA suspended spacewalks for seven months in March 2022 after water was found in a spacesuit helmet. A extra notable incident in July 2013 noticed Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet fill with water whereas he was spacewalking, necessitating an investigation and cures.
NASA is asking personal trade to contribute new spacesuits for a number of packages, together with low Earth orbit actions. The EMU is biased towards bigger and male sizes provided that it was designed half a century in the past, when male astronauts (drawn from the male-dominated army) made up NASA’s corps.
Collins Aerospace was anticipated to ship newer ISS fits, however withdrew from its contract in June as a result of its anticipated timeline “wouldn’t help the house station’s schedule and NASA’s mission targets.” At the moment, NASA confirmed the contract would finish, however didn’t announce its subsequent steps.
