Harbaugh said the oily substance, which included nonflammable fluorocarbons, could possibly burn in the system that uses pure oxygen compressed to 6,000 pounds per square inch. Tests conducted at JSC and at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico of both the primary system and backup regulators failed to produce combustion or any sort of failure, he said. We contaminated these regulators at twice the contamination we d seen on the secondary regulators. Inspection of the regulators Carleton Technologies Inc. of Orchard Park, New York discovered the contamination in June during a routine service of the regulators, Harbaugh said. Further inspection revealed contamination in the other regulators, though a check of the primary ones found them relatively clean.
Engineers have yet to determine how long the regulators have been contaminated.
The last time the regulators were taken apart was in the early 1990s and Harbaugh said a review of maintenance and servicing procedures would take place. Engineers are checking the source of the contamination, including oxygen supplies purchased from vendors. The suits have been used for spacewalks throughout most of the shuttle program and have a more than a 15-year useful life. Spacesuits for upcoming spacewalks Discovering the regulator problem probably could not have come at a worse time. Spacewalks are critical to adding the more than 45 modules and attachments requiring about an equal number of shuttle and Soyuz flights.