Posted on 06/25/2024 9:47:38 AM PDT by Red Badger
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps (center) is pictured assisting NASA astronauts Mike Barratt (left) and Tracy C. Dyson (right) inside the Quest airlock.
Image Credit: NASA TV
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NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Mike Barratt were supposed to go on a spacewalk on Monday, June 24 – but a fault led to the expected 6-and-a-half-hour walk being cut down to just 31 minutes. There was a water leak from the service and cooling umbilical unit on Dyson’s spacesuit that was described on the live stream by Dyson as spreading water "everywhere" in the airlock.
The pair had already switched to the internal power of the suits – so technically the spacewalk had begun – and had opened the hatch to the Quest airlock. Then they became aware of the water issue.
“The crew members were not in any danger as result of the leak. Dyson and Barratt set their suits to battery power at 8:46 a.m. EDT and opened the International Space Station’s Quest airlock hatch to the vacuum of space before reporting the water issue,” a NASA blog post about the event reads. “The spacewalk lasted a total of 31 minutes, when the crew suits repressurized the crew lock section of the airlock at 9:17 a.m.”
Spacewalking comes with risks – NASA estimates that around one-fifth of extravehicular activity ends up having either serious incidents or close calls. If we need to remember water-leak ones, we could think of ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano almost drowning in space. In that case, water was accumulating in the inside of his suit and helmet, slowly making its way across his face to his nose and mouth.
Nothing as dangerous and dramatic happened in this case. Dyson and Barratt were going to remove a faulty electronics box from a communication antenna in the starboard truss of the International Space Station. They were also going to collect samples to see if microorganisms can survive in the vacuum of space around the station.
The microbe collecting is an ongoing series of investigations inside and outside the space station to understand how microbes are adapting to the space environment. Some recent studies have shown that some have mutated in such a way that they are no longer similar to their Earthly counterparts.
The spacewalk has not been rescheduled and it might push the next spacewalk, planned for July 2, forward as well.
Diversity Leaks
The dreaded “low bid vendor scenario” strikes again…..
NASA is ridiculous. Astronauts are in constant danger from the time they strap into the spacecraft (Apollo 1) to the time they land (Columbia).
Hey Moe! These pipes are full of water!😜😝😝
I don’t want an affirmative action hire plumber—whether they manufactured the plumbing fixtures is irrelevant.
Working in space requires a zero defect mentality—the exact opposite of a diversity mentality.
Good one!
The problem I have been hearing about is helium leaks in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft maneuvering system that stopped working when in flight, not in the suits that the astronauts wear.
The spacewalk problem is with the suit. You are right. But that is the least of their problems. I bet NASA has “diversity” requirements on every contract so ILC may not be the same company they once were.
No one can hear you drown in space.
That kind of NASA stupidity is precisely the natural DEI outcome...
In another context, I seem to remember the admiral in charge at Pearl said the same thing...
WHAT IS THE OVER/UNDER FOR A RESCUE BY MUSK???
Probably about even at this point................
I have to defend Boeing here. If they want the $$$ from the Feds, they have to play by the rules.
Very scary info. Mental people working on hi tech equipment, something is going to boomarang one of these days.
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