Spacewalk Cut Short After Water Leaks Into Astronaut’s Helmet

The first spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) for this year had to be terminated Friday after one of two astronauts on the task reported a small amount of water leakage into his helmet.

This was the third spacewalk by the Texan born Kopra and the first by Tim Peake, making him the first British astronaut to have done so. This is the second time a spacewalk has been cut short due to water accumulation inside of an astronaut’s helmet.

In this frame grab from video provided by NASA-TV, U.S. astronaut Timothy Kopra emerges from the International Space Station, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.

Almost five hours into Friday’s spacewalk, Kopra, 52, reported that his helmet pad was damp and a ball of water had collected in his helmet, prompting NASA to end the mission. They will also use a syringe to take a water sample and retrieve the helmet absorption pad to find out what may have prompted the moisture to form.

The ESA live-tweeted the spacewalk with a blow-by-blow description of the astronaut’s moving along the station’s truss, unbolting the failed regulator and installing its replacement. Working in darkness to avoid electrical shock from the solar power system, the astronauts quickly removed the bad unit and popped in a spare, both about the size of a 30-gallon aquarium.

As the first British person to reach the ISS – following the first British citizen in space, Helen Sharman, who flew to the Russian Mir space station in 1991 – Peake has drawn plenty of attention from his compatriots.

Major Peake, 43, became the first Briton to ever complete a Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) – or spacewalk – and was undertaking a maintenance operation with the American Colonel Kopra. Now chief of NASAs astronaut corps, Cassidy said at least everyone now has “a good grasp” of what to heed and what to do.

“We’re all watching, no pressure!” former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney said via Twitter.

Major Peake added: “Thank you very much, I just want to reiterate Tim’s words there, you guys have done a great job, thanks for everybody’s support”.

Peake said in a blog post Thursday he felt “exhilarated” about his upcoming spacewalk but had “no time to dwell on these emotions”.

To distinguish between the two Tims, Mission Control used both their first and last names when calling out to them in the void.

Another European astronaut – Italy’s Luca Parmitano – nearly drowned when his helmet filled with water that leaked from the cooling system of his undergarment in July 2013.

“It was quite noticeable”, Mr Kopra later told ground controllers.