After a long break, NASA suggests timing for next spacewalk

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps (center) assists NASA astronauts Mike Barratt (left) and Tracy Dyson inside the station’s Quest airlock on the day of the incident. NASA TV

If you look at the list of spacewalks that have taken place at the International Space Station (ISS), you’ll notice that only two have taken place in 2024, with the last one happening in June.

Considering that at least 12 took place each year between 2021 and 2023, this is clearly an unusual turn of events. But there’s a good reason for it.

NASA suspended spacewalks at the ISS in June after water leaked from the service and cooling umbilical unit on a spacesuit worn by American astronaut Tracy Dyson shortly after the station’s hatch was opened at the start of a planned walk.

In response, NASA decided to suspend all spacewalk at the orbital facility to give engineers time to investigate the issue and create a fix.

After replacing a seal and the umbilical connection that links the spacesuit to the ISS, the compromised suit was successfully repressurized, though additional testing was needed to confirm that the suit design was reliable and safe.

With the issue apparently now resolved, Bill Spetch, operations and integration manager of NASA’s ISS program, said in a recent press conference that the space agency plans to resume spacewalks some time in 2025, Space.com reported.

A specific date has yet to be set, with Spetch explaining that it’s “just a matter of when is the right timing,” adding that spacewalks are usually scheduled to take place between spacecraft arrivals and departures, as well as around astronaut research activities.

As pointed out by Space.com, Dyson’s suit is from a design created in the 1970s and used during the space shuttle program in the 1980s. It was also worn for walks in which astronauts constructed the ISS high above Earth, as well as for maintenance and upgrade work on the exterior of the station over the last two decades. Now, NASA is looking to replace the aging suit with a more mobile and comfortable design based on the one tested by Jared Isaacman during the recent Polaris Dawn mission.

Despite using different spacesuits to NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency also suspended ISS spacewalks, likely as a precautionary measure and to allow time for thorough checks of all systems and equipment related to spacewalks, including Roscosmos’s own spacesuits, to ensure that everything’s in order.