(CNN Business) — A spacewalk was cut short just hours into what was supposed to be a nearly seven-hour ride after a Russian cosmonaut was repeatedly ordered to drop what he was doing and return to the space station’s airlock. International for a problem with his space suit.
NASA officials said during a live broadcast that the cosmonaut, Oleg Artemyev, was never in any danger. Still, problems with the battery pack that powers his spacesuit were worrying enough that flight controllers urgently ordered her to return to the space station and connect his suit to ISS power. Battery problems were causing “voltage fluctuations” in Artemyev’s spacesuit, according to a comment on the live broadcast of the spacewalk.
Officials on the ground warned Artemyev that he needed to return to the airlock.
A Russian cosmonaut has been ordered back to the International Space Station’s airlock due to a problem with his spacesuit.
“Drop everything and start going back immediately,” was one of the last messages from the ground before Artemyev confirmed that he was heading for the airlock. A few minutes later, he was able to re-enter the space station and connect his suit to his power source.
Cosmonaut Denis Matveev, who was working alongside Artemyev on the spacewalk, stood just outside the space station’s airlock for more than an hour until flight controllers decided to end the spacewalk early due to problems with Artemyev’s space suit.
A Russian translator noted on the live stream that Artemyev jokingly told flight controllers that he felt “better than when the spacewalk started” after returning to the ISS.
The goal of this Wednesday’s spacewalk was for the two cosmonauts, Artemyev and Matveev, to install two cameras on the new european robotic armwhich is fixed to the outside of the space station in a part of the ISS controlled by Russia.
Spacewalks are regular events on the ISS, as astronauts and cosmonauts — the Russian term for astronaut — routinely need to leave the space station for maintenance, scientific experiments and other tasks. More than 250 spacewalks have been performed outside the orbiting lab since it entered service about two decades ago, and they generally go smoothly.
This was Artemyev’s seventh spacewalk and Matveev’s third. Both men were wearing Russian-made Orlan spacesuits. There are also US-made EMU, or Extravehicular Mobility Unit, spacesuits aboard the ISS for spacewalks.
Both types of suits are designed to be completely self-contained, providing all the air and providing the only barrier between astronauts and the deadly vacuum of space during spacewalks. They are equipped with communications equipment, ventilation, and enough air for astronauts to breathe for hours.