WASHINGTON — A Russian spacewalk outside the International Space Station ended hours earlier than planned on Wednesday after a cosmonaut discovered an electrical issue with his spacesuit, US and Russian officials said.
Oleg Artemyev was roughly two hours into a six-hour spacewalk when voltage levels in his spacesuit’s battery began to unexpectedly drop, prompting flight controllers in Moscow to repeatedly order the cosmonaut’s immediate return to the space station’s airlock.
“Oleg, drop everything and go back,” a flight controller urged Artemyev from mission control in Moscow, as heard on a live feed of space-to-ground audio. “Drop everything and start going back right away… Go back and connect to station power.”
Artemyev returned to the airlock and connected his suit to the space station’s power.
The flight controller warned Artemyev that he risked losing power to his suit’s oxygen pump, and contact with mission control, if he did not immediately return to the airlock for power. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said Artemyev “was never in any danger.” — Reuters