The International Space Station in orbit around Earth.
If you’re going to spend six and a half hours laboring outside the International Space Station, you want to feel comfortable in your spacesuit. A spacewalk with two NASA astronauts was called off shortly before it was set to start on June 13. The spacewalk “did not proceed as scheduled due to a spacesuit discomfort issue,” NASA said in a statement that didn’t elaborate on the exact nature of the issue.
Astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick were tasked with removing a faulty electronics box called a radio frequency group from a communications antenna. The astronauts were also set to collect samples that would be analyzed to understand how microorganisms live and reproduce outside the ISS.
US astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson is seen before entering a training module outside Moscow in 2010. ... [+]
Dyson is an experienced spacewalker who has ventured out into space three times before. This would have been Dominick’s first spacewalk.
Spacewalk procedures had been moving along like normal. NASA TV’s live coverage of preparations showed the astronauts dressed in their suits and moving their arms and legs as part of pre-breathing exercises. The exercises involve breathing in pure oxygen to reduce nitrogen in their bodies to avoid decompression sickness. This is a danger scuba divers can face as well.
At one point, the space station ground team received a request for a “private medical conference” from one of the astronauts. “Astronauts have the ability to speak to flight doctors multiple times a week and, of course, they are on call during strenuous activities like spacewalks,” said livestream host Leah Cheshier. NASA called off the spacewalk shortly after the conference.
NASA’s ISS spacesuits are more formally known as Extravehicular Mobility Units. There’s a limited inventory of EMUs on the ISS. The suits are based on a design that is more than 40 years old, dating back to the space shuttle program.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir performs a spacewalk. Meir was part of the first all-woman spacewalk ... [+]
NASA has been working on next-generation spacesuits, but they’re not yet in service. “With a new spacesuit, we can address some of the current obsolescence issues with the EMU and take advantage of all the new technologies that are available to us now that weren’t available 50 years ago, such as improved mobility and technological innovations in life support systems,” said Lara Kearney, manager of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility program, in 2023 while debuting a new spacesuit design from partner Collins Aerospace. The meantime, astronauts have to make due with what’s available.
Spacesuit issues have triggered spacewalk cancellations in the past. The first scheduled all-female spacewalk was canceled in 2019 due to a spacesuit sizing problem. Limited sizes of suits are available and the options weren’t able to accommodate the sizing needs of both spacewalkers. The first all-woman spacewalk took place later that year when NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir teamed up for repair work outside the ISS. The agency has also dealt with water and moisture issues in the spacesuit helmets.
NASA had been targeting three spacewalks for June, but is now evaluating the schedule in light of the postponement.
