Spacewalk aborted after oxygen leak
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-25 11:05

Spacewalking astronauts from the International Space Station aborted their mission on Thursday just minutes after leaving their airlock when ground controllers noted that American Michael Finke's oxygen supply was apparently bleeding into space.

Two astronauts from the International Space Station, a Russian and an American, prepared for a spacewalk on June 24, 2004 that could be the most daunting in the six years crews have lived there. Gennady Padalka and Michael Fincke, who are due to begin their six-hour walk at 5:25 p.m. EDT, may spend long periods out of touch with ground controllers and each other, communicating with hand signals as they conduct a delicate repair job outside the station. The hand signals are demonstrated by Fincke in this recent NASA. [NASA]

Although the clock at Mission Control in Houston showed the spacewalk had lasted more than 14 minutes, most of that time was spent inside the depressurized airlock. Finke had actually been outside less than two minutes before Russian ground controllers ordered him back in.

"You need to return. The pressure in Michael's bottle is falling," said a Russian ground controller.

"Okay, Michael, we're going back in," said Padalka, the station's commander.

The pair quickly scrambled back inside, closed the hatch and hooked up their suits to the station's air supply. NASA said the pressure inside Fincke's suit never dropped, but the pressure inside his main oxygen tank dropped precipitously.

The drama added yet another twist to a spacewalk that has been problematic from the start.

The pair were supposed to replace a transistorized switch that had disabled one of four large gyroscopes that keep the 200-tonspace station stable in flight and its solar-power arrays pointed toward the sun.

When two of three U.S. spacesuits aboard the station malfunctioned, the plan was altered to use Russian suits, requiring the astronauts to use the Russian airlock on the opposite side of the station.

Their work would have taken them so far from the Russian segment and its antennas that they would not only be out of touch with ground controllers much of the time, but probably one another as well.

Padalka and Fincke had worked out some simple hands signals to use if they could not hear one another.

The spacewalk could be rescheduled no earlier than June 29, NASA said, but that depends on finding and fixing the problem in the Russian spacesuit.

Padalka reported that he could not find the leak in initial tests. "There is nothing there, no hissing sound. There is silence there," Padalka reported.

This was the 53rd spacewalk made since orbital construction began on the station in 1998, but it was the second in a row to be called off early due to a suit problem. The earlier problem involved a U.S. suit and an earlier crew.

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