spacetoday.net: Suit problem cuts short spacewalk

Posted: Thu, Jul 23, 2009, 8:40 AM ET (1240 GMT)
STS-127: EVA #3 (NASA)

The third spacewalk of the STS-127 shuttle mission ended early on Wednesday when a problem developed with one of the spacewalker's suits. Astronauts Dave Wolf and Chris Cassidy spend 5 hours and 59 minutes outside the ISS Wednesday, ending at 4:31 pm EDT. The spacewalk was cut short when sensors inside Cassidy's suit detected rising levels of carbon dioxide. Cassidy was not in danger, NASA officials said, but mission controllers decided to end the spacewalk early as a precaution. Wolf and Cassidy were in the process of replacing six batteries on the P6 truss segment when the problem arose; the remainder will be replaced on another spacewalk Friday. The two had previously removed insulation covers on the Kibo module and readied a set of payloads for transfer to the newly-installed experiment "porch" on Kibo.