spacetoday.net: Suit problem leads to spacewalk abort

Posted: Fri, Jun 25, 2004, 11:56 AM ET (1556 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

A loss of pressure in the main oxygen tank of one spacesuit forced mission controllers to abort a spacewalk outside the International Space Station only minutes after it began. Russian controllers noticed a decrease in pressure in the spacesuit of Michael Fincke just minutes after he and Gennady Padalka left the space station at 5:56 pm EDT (2156 GMT) Thursday. Unable to diagnose or correct the problem, controllers told the pair to return to the Pirs airlock module, ending the spacewalk just 14 minutes after it started. A check of the spacesuit after the spacewalk failed to reveal the cause of the oxygen loss. The spacewalk has been rescheduled for no earlier than June 29, although that date will depend on when the problem is detected and how long it will take to correct. The spacewalk was designed to attempt to fix a faulty gyroscope on the American segment of the station used to provide attitude control. The two crewmembers had planned to use American spacesuits from a closer airlock on the US side of the station, but problems with those suits forced the change. An EVA earlier this year had to be cut short when the cooling system on one of the Russian spacesuits failed.