No plans to equip non-Russian astronauts with Russian spacesuits at ISS - official
MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax-AVN) - There are no plans to equip non-Russian astronauts working on board the International Space Station (ISS) with Russian spacesuits for spacewalks following a Tuesday incident, during which the spacewalk of a NASA and an Italian astronaut was aborted after water began building up in the latter's spacesuit, says Vladimir Solovyov, the chief flight officer of the Russian section of the ISS at the space mission control outside Moscow.
"We are not considering such an option at the moment," Solovyov told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
No decision has yet been made as to when the astronauts, who did not complete their mission in outerspace on Tuesday, could take another spacewalk, as the causes of the spacesuit water leak have not yet been determined, he said.
Solovyov suggested that water leaking into the helmet of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano of Italy could have come from a drinking container.
It was said earlier that Parmitano reported water in his spacesuit slightly more than one hour into a spacewalk that was supposed to last for more than six hours on Tuesday. NASA ordered that the mission be cut short and the astronauts return aboard the station.