ISS Spacewalk Ends Early Due To Spacesuit Issue: What Actually Happened?

A spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) had to be ended earlier than expected because of an issue with a cosmonaut's spacesuit. Spacewalker Oleg Artemyev was instructed to "drop everything and start going back right away."

Roscosmos cosmonauts Artemyev and Denis Matveev were two hours and 17 minutes into the spacewalk Wednesday when the former's spacesuit showed "abnormal battery readings," NASA noted in a blogpost. By that time, the two had already completed installing two cameras on the European robotic arm.

While they were "never in any danger during the operations," flight controllers instructed him to go back to the station's Poisk airlock to connect his suit to the power supply, according to NASA.

"Drop everything and start going back right away," Vladimir Solovyov, former cosmonaut and flight director for the Russian segment of the space station, told Artemyev, Space.com reported. "Oleg, go back and connect to station power."

Artemyev responded: "I copy and understand."

While Artemyev did as instructed, Matveev remained outside the station's airlock, reported CNN. He stayed there for about an hour before the decision to cut the spacewalk short was made.

"It has been almost an hour since Oleg Artemyev, the Expedition 67 commander, noted a drop in battery voltage for his Orlan spacesuit," NASA officials said in a live stream. "So we now will be terminating today's spacewalk early. Denis Matveev will return to the airlock to join Atremyev who is on station power hooked up to an umbilical inside the Poisk airlock."

Matveev also returned safely after finishing some "final clean-up activities" outside the ISS and waiting for the robotic arm to return to its stowed configuration. The spacewalk officially ended at 1.54 p.m. ET, just four hours and 1 minute after they began, cutting short what was supposed to be a six-and-a-half-hour activity.

It was the seventh spacewalk at the ISS this year, but the 252nd one for "assembly, maintenance and upgrades," noted NASA. Because of the disruption, "additional spacewalks" will be planned to continue the work on the European robotic arm.

"The work on the European robotic arm will be used to move spacewalkers and payloads around the Russian segment of the station," NASA said.