Over a decade ago, NASA confirmed in a report that Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano almost died during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) in July 2013. The European Space Agency (ESA) worker not only came close to death on one occasion, but twice avoided disaster.
“It was an orderly situation in which the crew members and ground crew reacted by following the usual procedures,” the US space agency said at the time. A failure occurred in Luca Parmitano’s suit because water entered his helmet. At first, it was thought that a broken drink bag caused this incident.
Chris Hansen, NASA’s chief engineer who led the investigation into this case, noted that “if the issue had been dealt with in more detail… the team probably would have realised that the water in the helmet needed further investigation”.
Only a week later, Luca Parmitano went back out of the International Space Station with Chris Cassidy, in a walk that was expected to last more than six hours. The mission was to install some power equipment and prepare some cables for the new laboratory module that would arrive in the following months.
NASA confirmed that “we’re not hiding these things”
After about an hour, Parmitano told control that there was “a lot of water” in his helmet again. The mission was aborted because more than 1.5 liters of liquid entered the astronaut’s suit. The biggest problem was that radio communication was lost and he had to be helped by his partner to get into the spacecraft.
The issue, following an investigation gathered in a 220-page report with 49 recommendations to improve astronaut safety, training and communication protocols, concluded that the leak was due to contamination of a pump located in the spacesuit’s cooling system.
“The message to all of us is that we need to be very vigilant and really communicate. We’re not hiding these things. In fact, we’re trying to describe where we can improve. I think that’s how we prevent accidents like Columbia and Challenger,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s head of spaceflight.
Space suits and their evolution over time
Edward White was the first person to perform a spacewalk during the ‘Gemini’ mission on June 4, 1965. The specialist was connected to the spacecraft with a 7.6-meter cord and another seven-meter tether to prevent him from drifting.
Over the decades, technology has evolved to the point where today’s suits feature underwear in which almost 100 tubes of water allow astronauts’ body temperature to be regulated. In addition, these garments have a microphone and loudspeaker to listen and talk to all the personnel on space missions.
Each modern suit has a backpack, water, generator and oxygen to breathe, as well as personal gloves. The equipment is quite heavy and tiring, so astronauts can only be outside the spacecraft for about six hours on these space explorations.