When an Astronaut Nearly Drowned in Space | Unveiled

When An Astronaut Nearly Drowned in Space

There are lots of things in space that can kill you. Black holes, supernovae, asteroids, to name just three. And there are lots of reasons why being an astronaut ranks as one of the most dangerous career choices possible. But, in amongst all of the more obvious threats, we occasionally hear of something a little less… expected.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re uncovering the extraordinary story of when an astronaut nearly drowned in space.

Can you imagine what it must be like to be an astronaut participating in a spacewalk? To spend time outside the International Space Station, floating more than two hundred miles above the surface of the Earth. It might be described as awe-inspiring, humbling, or breathtaking… but, for one astronaut, it was very nearly terrible, tragic and disastrous.

On July 9th 2013, Luca Parmitano became the first ever Italian to perform a spacewalk, when he and another astronaut, Chris Cassidy, successfully completed a set of tasks on the ISS. A week later, on July 16th, and the same pair were geared up and ready to go again… only, this time, things didn’t go to plan. Luca was about one hour into a six-hour Extravehicular Activity (or EVA), again to perform routine maintenance on the outside of the space station. But suddenly, he noticed what felt like water on the inside of his helmet, including at the back of his neck. Initially, he thought it might’ve been sweat, and he continued with his work. But then the amount of water increased. And kept increasing. Until he and the rest of the ISS crew realised that they had a major problem on their hands.

Still floating outside of the station, Luca later recalled how the water at one time covered his mouth, nose, eyes and ears - comparing the experience to being like a goldfish in a bowl. The astronaut was literally hanging in space with all of his senses obscured. And, when you consider how water behaves in low gravity, glooping together to form a kind of fluid mass, this was a wholly unique (and definitely life-threatening) scenario. As such, the EVA was terminated by NASA ground crew, and the race was on to get Luca back to safety.

As he made his way to the airlock, the water clung to his visor. And to his face. He could barely see more than a few inches in front of him, so was relying on his intuition and the safety cable to guide him where he needed to go. At one point, he tried to shake his head to rid himself of the water, but it only made it worse. The tension at mission control (and back on the space station) was growing, but Luca himself reportedly remained calm throughout. By the time he was in the airlock and going through a repressurization routine, he couldn’t even hear the rest of his crew because the water had by now filled his ears. It was only when he was back in the station proper that he could finally remove his helmet, drain the water, and try to make sense of what had just happened. Luca had very nearly died in space, drowned in his helmet, but the investigation that followed revealed some more unsettling details.

In February 2014, eight months after the incident, news broke of a damning report looking into how and why disaster had threatened. Conducted by the Mishap Investigation Board, it found that at least 1.5 litres of water had entered Luca’s helmet during his ordeal. But it also discovered that a similar malfunction had taken place, on a spacewalk shortly beforehand - on Luca’s first spacewalk, the one he had participated in a week prior to the one that went wrong. A smaller leak had been noted toward the end of that mission, but NASA had failed to recognise the significance of it… and the ISS pressed on with its plans unaltered. With this in mind, as bizarre as a helmet filling up with water may seem, it seemingly wasn’t quite so unheard of within NASA itself.

In fairness, following Luca’s near drowning the spacesuits used were then put through a much more intensive review. There were now two reports of a similar fault, and the need to address that fault was met - with it eventually found that a blockage in a filter had caused excess water to spill out. Even so, headlines around the world made grim reading for NASA, with some reports claiming the Agency could’ve avoided placing Luca into danger had it acted earlier.

Fortunately, of course, the story has a happy ending. Luca survived, and was mostly unphased by the experience. He wasn’t physically hurt, and his career was in no way affected. Today, he has amassed more than a year spent in space, split across multiple ISS missions. And he’s passed many more hours conducting far more routine EVAs. What’s more, in July 2015, two years after almost drowning on the ISS, he was chosen to lead an underwater training mission by NASA, held off the coast of Florida. The mission involved a team staying in an underwater habitat for two weeks, to test equipment planned for use on future spacewalks. Clearly, even a helmet full of water couldn’t deter Luca from heading beneath the waves for the benefit of space travel.

But, still, it’s frightening to think just how close he could’ve been to losing his life. Had the mission not been aborted when it was, had the water continued to trickle in, then Luca may not have made it back. For some, his story shared some similarities with that of another astronaut’s, almost fifty years beforehand.

The Soviet cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov, goes down in history as the first person ever to conduct a spacewalk - when he stepped outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft, in 1965. In all, he was outside for just over twelve minutes, scoring another milestone for the Soviet Space Program in the space race against NASA, across the 1950s and ‘60s. But Leonov, like Luca Parmitano, almost paid the ultimate price. By the time he came to re-enter the craft, Leonov’s suit had malfunctioned and inflated, to the point where the astronaut himself had to bleed pressure out of it - or else he wouldn’t have been able to fit back inside. Thankfully, he did get back inside with his life intact, and his place in history confirmed.

Both of these instances serve as a reminder of just how dangerous space travel can be. Whether we’re looking back at the first pioneers in the mid-twentieth century, or zooming in on the everyday space missions of the modern world, it’s clear that when things go wrong, they can have terrible consequences. But let’s finish this video on a positive note… because for every error, failure or problem, there are many, many triumphs. And the day-to-day running of the International Space Station is one such success story.

Since December 1998, there have been more than 230 spacewalks completed on the ISS, and the vast majority have gone off without a hitch. The year of 2007 stands as the busiest on record so far, with twenty-three walks taking place across just twelve months. In 2013, the year of Luca’s near miss, a further ten spacewalks were conducted with relative ease - including one Russian walk, wherein the Olympic Torch was carried by Russian cosmonauts, as part of the build-up to the Sochi Winter Games in 2014. Coincidentally, since Leonov’s time, the number of individual astronauts to have carried out a spacewalk on any mission is also just over 230. With people from nations all over the world having achieved this spectacular feat. But really, these numbers are only set to grow. In today’s world, humankind is at the stage when a spacewalk no longer captures global attention as standard (unless something threatens to go wrong, as it did with Luca’s). These incredible moments are now an expected part of science and technology.

While billions of us move around on Earth’s surface, going about our daily lives… a select few are up there, tethered to a modular lab, watching the continents race by beneath them. They’re fixing vents, installing systems, and running updates… it’s just that they’re doing it all whilst floating in the vacuum of space. It’s a privileged view, sure, but it’s one that requires immense bravery to enjoy. Do you think you could do it? Do you think you could leave the safety of your vehicle and go outside? Because, for now, that’s the story of when an astronaut nearly drowned in space.