NASA's spacewalking suits have oil contamination in their emergency oxygen packs, a longtime problem that could have caused the outfits to burst into flames, officials said Friday. All 12 suits are contaminated, said Gregory Harbaugh, an astronaut in charge of NASA's spacewalk office. Each emergency oxygen pack is being cleaned, and special filters will be used to fill them to make sure no more dirt gets inside. The work is not expected to delay upcoming shuttle flights to the international space station.
Oil can ignite when combined with the pure oxygen that spacewalking astronauts breathe.
To the best of Harbaugh's knowledge, no NASA astronaut has ever had to activate an emergency oxygen pack in space. Americans have performed 84 spacewalks beginning with Ed White's stroll outside Gemini 4 in 1965. Twice that many spacewalks will be required over the next five years, however, to assemble the international space station. The Russians finally launched their Zvezda service module on Wednesday, clearing the way for the onslaught of assembly missions. Two astronauts are supposed to conduct a single spacewalk on the next space shuttle flight, a space station resupply mission in September.