Spacewalk on ISS canceled due to spacesuit issue
Two astronauts on ISS were forced today to abort their spacewalk soon after opening the hatch to go outside because a water issue in one suit.
This is the second time this spacewalk has been aborted. The first time, on June 13, 2024, was canceled due to an unspecified “spacesuit discomfort issue.”
This cancellation might cause a problem with the presently unscheduled return of Starliner, as its June 26, 2024 return was postponed to allow this spacewalk to take place without any schedule conflicts. Or it might simplify Starliner’s return, as the spacewalk will not happen due to spacesuit issues.
Note also that the American suits are old, and prone to these kinds of water leak issues. NASA started a project to replace them fifteen years ago, spent more than a billion on designs, getting nothing built, before abandoning its effort and awarding the project to two private companies.
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Two astronauts on ISS were forced today to abort their spacewalk soon after opening the hatch to go outside because a water issue in one suit.
This is the second time this spacewalk has been aborted. The first time, on June 13, 2024, was canceled due to an unspecified “spacesuit discomfort issue.”
This cancellation might cause a problem with the presently unscheduled return of Starliner, as its June 26, 2024 return was postponed to allow this spacewalk to take place without any schedule conflicts. Or it might simplify Starliner’s return, as the spacewalk will not happen due to spacesuit issues.
Note also that the American suits are old, and prone to these kinds of water leak issues. NASA started a project to replace them fifteen years ago, spent more than a billion on designs, getting nothing built, before abandoning its effort and awarding the project to two private companies.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
NASA started a project to replace them fifteen years ago, spent more than a billion on designs, getting nothing built, before abandoning its effort and awarding the project to two private companies.
I guess the real EVA suits were the friends we made along the way.
Simple – the Crew Dragon that SpaceX sends up to get Butch and Sunny can bring some new suits… and a change of clothes for them too.
This reminds me of Luca Parmitano nearly drowning during his July 2013 EVA.
The ISS continues its slow decay while NASA continues to botch what few efforts it has made to do anything to update its infrastructure. The only successful such upgrades have come from private-sector suppliers such as the late Bigelow’s BEAM module and the roll-out solar panel upgrades. Axiom and Collins are now in a race with time to get new suits designed and fielded before the badly superannuated antiques now in service seriously injure or kill someone.
Well sure, NASA is pretty much failing at the SPACE aspects of it’s “mission”, but they’re still going gangbusters on their MUSLIM OUTREACH – right? RIGHT???
It would be interesting to see how exactly one goes about spending BILLIONS on DESIGNS and STILL end up with NOTHING! First of all you HAD suits that worked MOST of the time so the smart thing to do would be to id the areas of failure and FIX those! I’d guess they were looking for some sleek HOLLYWOOD designs that weren’t feasible! Still though an AUDIT of WHO got the money and WHAT was presented should be made PUBLIC!
Still though an AUDIT of WHO got the money and WHAT was presented should be made PUBLIC!
To what end? Just to pick an example, we know just about everything about the Solyndra boondoggle yet nothing has been done about it.
To quote a (in)famous person, “at this point, what difference does it make?”