"The decision to
suspend the walk, as European astronaut Luca appeared Parmitano water in
diving," said Solovyov told Interfax.
The "fluid
leakage" occurred when Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy
performing repair and maintenance tasks outside the orbital outpost.
"After that the
U.S. took the decision on the urgent return of the astronauts aboard the
ISS," said Anna Vedisheva, spokesman for the Russian space agency
Roscosmos.
For this reason,
Italian and American, who left the station at 11:56 GMT, met only 1 hour and 32
minutes of extravehicular activity and could not complete its work.
"Parmitano and
Cassidy are fine. Just over an hour after departure, Parmitano reported water
ingress from the back of his helmet," NASA said in a statement.
For now, NASA
specialists have failed to pinpoint the source of the problem, since the diving
includes various fluid systems that need to function.
Technicians are
considering the possibility that the liquid proceed drinking water bottle to
drink the astronauts during walks.
"Luca told us in
the previous walk had fluid in the diving, but only slightly," said a
spokesman at NASA's Mission Control Center Russian Space.
According to the
testimony of Italian, spent 33 minutes between fluid was detected in his
spacesuit and the time your peers on the ISS took off the helmet.
"NASA engineers
believe that if the problem is only with the water, the next hike could take
place next week. But it is still early to talk about it," added NASA's
representative in Russia.
The six occupants of
the International Space Station right now trying to solve the problem on their
own, according to NASA.
The spokesman for the
European Space Agency (ESA), Rene Pichel said that the two astronauts will not
outside the platform to clarify the reasons for the escape of liquid.
Pichel explained that
the ERA should have several spare space suits for spacewalks, although he added
that now, "before dressing (the astronaut), we must understand the causes
of what happened."
The ESA official said
that this is the first time in history that a spacewalk is suspended by the
liquid inlet in one of the suits.
Parmitano, who came to
the orbital outpost to late May aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, conducted
last week its first extravehicular activity with Cassidy.
At 36 years, the ESA
astronaut is the youngest person to be part of a long-term expedition on the
ISS.
At present, besides the
two mentioned, working on the ISS Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov,
Alexander Misurkin and Fyodor Yurchijin, plus the U.S. Karen Nyberg.
Since the withdrawal of
the functioning of the U.S. shuttle, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft are the only
means of transporting astronauts between Earth and the ISS.
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