Fwd: NASA to wrap up look into 'close call' spacewalk incident

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 9, 2014 12:51:20 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: NASA to wrap up look into 'close call' spacewalk incident

 

NASA to wrap up look into 'close call' spacewalk incident

James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY 12:15 p.m. EDT August 8, 2014

 

A year after one of its scariest spacewalking incidents, NASA on Monday hopes to prove it is ready to resume normal spacewalk activity outside the International Space Station.

 

Officials will meet at Johnson Space Center in Houston to review measures taken to prevent problems like the spacesuit water leak that could have drowned Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano during a July 16, 2013, spacewalk.

 

The spacewalk was aborted when Parmitano reported water sloshing around his helmet, making it difficult for him to see and breathe. He returned to an airlock to safely conclude what a NASA mishap report later called a "high-visibility close call."

 

Since then, astronauts have completed several unplanned or "contingency" spacewalks to repair critical station systems, with new precautions in place including a sponge and snorkel in suits should another leak occur.

 

But no planned spacewalks could proceed until the root cause of the malfunction was determined and the proposed changes implemented.

 

Monday's review is expected to conclude with a go-ahead to resume normal spacewalking operations from Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA's human spaceflight programs.

 

The readiness review had been scheduled shortly before two U.S. spacewalks planned for later this month.

 

But that "extra-vehicular activity" was put off until the fall after an unrelated issue cropped up with a spacesuit battery. The spacewalks will wait until after new batteries are flown up on SpaceX's next resupply mission, targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral no earlier than mid-September.

 

Two Russian cosmonauts, who use a different type of spacesuit, are scheduled to work outside the outpost Aug. 18.

 

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