Spaceflight Now Home



Spaceflight Now +



Premium video content for our Spaceflight Now Plus subscribers.

History Flashback
This retrospective looks to the daring inaugural flight of space shuttle Endeavour in May 1992 as three spacewalking astronauts rescued the wayward Intelsat communications satellite.
 Full report

Rover looks into crater
The spectacular high-resolution, color panorama from the Mars rover Opportunity at the edge of Endurance Crater is presented with expert narration by Steve Squyres, the mission's lead scientist. (2min 08sec file)
 Play video

The Columbia Hills
Explore the Columbia Hills at Gusev Crater where Spirit is headed in this computer-generated movie using imagery from orbit. Expert narration by Amy Knudson, science team collaborator. (3min 11sec file)
 Play video

Thursday's Mars briefing
The Mars rover Opportunity's arrival at Endurance Crater and Spirit's trek to the Columbia Hills are topics in this news conference from May 6. (42min 12sec file)
 Play video

Tale of Soyuz ride
Expedition 8 commander Mike Foale describes what it is like to land in a Soyuz capsule and reflects on his half-year mission aboard the International Space Station in this post-flight interview. (23min 37sec file)
 Play video
 More clips

Become a subscriber
More video



NewsAlert



Sign up for our NewsAlert service and have the latest news in astronomy and space e-mailed direct to your desktop.

Enter your e-mail address:

Privacy note: your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose.



Station crew troubleshoots spacesuit problems
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: May 19, 2004

Space station astronauts Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke were forced to interrupt a planned seven-hour rehearsal today for an upcoming spacewalk when they ran into a series of cooling problems with their NASA spacesuits.


File image of cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and astronaut Ed Lu conducting an EVA spacesuit fit check in the space station's Quest airlock during Expedition 7. Credit: NASA
 
The test began at 4:30 a.m. when Padalka and Fincke began donning the suits for a detailed checkout prior to a spacewalk June 10 to replace a gyroscope control unit. But it quickly became apparent that Padalka's suit was not providing any cooling. Fincke's suit worked normally at the "max cool" setting but when the astronaut tried to reduce cooling to a more comfortable level, the system stopped working.

Two hours into the test, Padalka and Fincke were ordered out of their suits for detailed troubleshooting. After making sure there were no problems with the water-cooled undergarments that interface with the suits, Fincke was able to get his spacesuit to operate normally. But the cooling system in Padalka's suit remained out of action, possibly due to froth and bubbles in the coolant loops.

The astronauts then ran a procedure to eliminate the bubbles, but Fincke reported "no flow" in the cooling system. Flight controllers told the astronauts to take a break for lunch while engineers debated additional corrective action. Finally, just before 12 p.m., troubleshooting was called off for the day.

The spacewalk is needed to restart one of the station's massive gyroscopes. The gyro, which helps stabilize and re-orient the station, shut down April 21 when an electronic control box suffered an internal failure. Spares are on board, but a spacewalk is required to replace the faulty unit.

Because of its location on the Z1 truss atop the Unity module, engineers want to stage the spacewalk from the nearby U.S. Quest airlock module using NASA spacesuits. Spacewalks also can be staged from the Russian Pirs airlock module using Russian suits, but it would be much more difficult to reach the Z1 truss from there.

Given the apparent failure of Padalka's cooling system, it appears unlikely a spacewalk can be mounted on June 10 as planned. But troubleshooting is not yet complete and no final decisions have been made.