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After a flight readiness review, NASA has given the go-ahead for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Spacewalks have been suspended for almost seven months since ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer found a small amount of water in his helmet on March 23.
“Crew safety is a top priority for NASA and our international partners. We are proud of the work our space station and ground teams are doing to protect our crew. We continue to find ways to reduce the risks of human spaceflight,” a press statement from NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
After Maurer’s spacewalk a few months ago, the space station crew quickly removed his helmet and worked with NASA’s ground support team to collect data on the matter. The US space agency classified the event as near and declared all future spacewalks to be over.
Water samples and some of Maurer’s suit hardware were sent back to Earth on Russia’s Soyuz 65S and his NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission. The entire spacesuit was then sent back with his SpaceX CRS-25 mission for a detailed analysis.
In addition to updating operational procedures, the space station team has developed new mitigation hardware that reduces the likelihood of such condensation accumulating water and absorbs water if it does occur. NASA’s management team approved the return to normal operations after adding new operational procedures and mitigation hardware.
What did the investigation reveal? After completing a detailed test and teardown of the spacesuit, evaluating water samples and the suit’s hardware to see what happened, NASA’s team confirmed the suit had no hardware failures. The space agency said the extra moisture in the suit is likely due to condensation, as the integrated system coordinates multiple crew movements and crew cooling simultaneously.