Spacesuit trouble shortens spacewalk
July 23rd, 2009 - 12:16 pm ICT by IANSWashington, July 23 (DPA) Problems with a spacesuit has caused NASA to cut short a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
Problems with a system that removes carbon dioxide from the air in astronaut Chris Cassidy’s spacesuit caused mission control to end the spacewalk at 2031 GMT Wednesday after five hours and 59 minutes. Carbon dioxide levels were beginning to rise in his suit, but he was not in any imminent danger, NASA said. The spacewalk was to have lasted about six and a half hours.
Cassidy and fellow US astronaut Dave Wolf spent the spacewalk changing batteries on one of the station’s solar panels. Because of the spacesuit problems they were able to swap out just two of four batteries that were to be exchanged during the spacewalk. A third old battery was removed, but they did not have time to install a new one when the spacewalk was cut short.
Each solar panel on the station has six batteries, and the panels’ other batteries will be swapped during a spacewalk later in the mission.
NASA plans to retire the ageing fleet of shuttles at the end of next year.
The spacewalkers also removed insulation from Japanese experiments and moved handrails on the outside of the ISS.
It was the third of five planned spacewalks during the mission that brought a new porch to the Japanese Kibo laboratory. The four-tonne porch on the station’s Japanese laboratory will be used to expose scientific experiments to the extremities of space through X-ray cameras and studies of cosmic dust.
The next spacewalk, which is also to focus on battery work, is set for Friday.
- Spacewalkers replace ISS solar panel batteries - Jul 25, 2009
- Japan's robotic arm used for first time on space station - Jul 24, 2009
- Endeavour returns to Earth after 17-day mission - Jul 31, 2009
- Astronauts complete final spacewalk - Jul 28, 2009
- Astronauts install video cameras on ISS porch - Jul 27, 2009
- Space shuttle Endeavour headed home (Lead) - Jul 29, 2009
- Discovery crew completes first spacewalk successfully - Apr 09, 2010
- Astronauts install porch on ISS - Jul 19, 2009
- NASA delays Endeavour launch by 24 hours - Jul 12, 2009
- Space shuttle Endeavour successfully returns to Earth - Aug 01, 2009
- NASA space shuttle Discovery returns safely - Apr 20, 2010
- Space shuttle Endeavour prepares to head home - Jul 29, 2009
- Astronauts inspect Endeavour's heat shield before landing - Jul 30, 2009
- Spacewalkers outfit new space station room - Feb 14, 2010
- NASA's space shuttle Endeavour ends final mission - Jun 01, 2011
Tags: astronaut dave wolf, battery work, carbon dioxide levels, chris cassidy, cosmic dust, extremities, imminent danger, international space station, mission nasa, nasa, new porch, old battery, scientific experiments, solar panel, solar panels, spacesuit, spacewalk, spacewalkers, spacewalks, x ray cameras