NASA is undertaking an aggressive investigation of a spacesuit leak that allowed an estimated 1-1.5 liters of water to seep into the helmet and spacesuit of European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during a July 16 spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The planned 6-7-hr, excursion was cut short after roughly 90 min. when weightless blobs of water gathered around Parmitano's eyes, nose and mouth that if left unchecked could have caused him to choke or even drown, according to Karina Eversley, the lead spacewalk officer at NASA's Mission Control in Houston. "Our whole spacewalk community will be working through a fault tree and checking off every possibility," Eversley says. Parmitano and fellow spacewalker Chris Cassidy of NASA had completed another excursion the week before, outfitted in the same SDace shuttle-era suits without incident.
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