A space walking astronaut had a lucky escape on 16 July when his space suit began to fill with globules of water. Astronaut Luca Parmitano (ESA) along with Chris Cassidy (NASA) were performing a spacewalk which began at 1157 GMT on 16 July for cabling tasks on the outside of the International Space Station.
While Parmitano was routing an Ethernet cable from the US segment. globules of water suddenly became apparent on the inside of his helmet. These began to enter Parmitano’s eyes, nose and mouth presenting a theoretical breathing and electrocution hazard and the ISS controllers decided to end the EVA after only 1 hour 32 minutes. Once inside the space station, Parmitano’s helmet was removed with water floating away in the process. A suit leak is suspected though not from his drinking water which was checked and ruled out.
