Water Leak Inside SpaceX Dragon Capsule After Splashdown

SpaceX's Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on May 18, 2014 after about one month in space.

Credit: SpaceX

Water was discovered in the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Dragon spacecraft that recently returned to Earth from a month-long stay at the international space station, but so far as NASA knew May 21, none of the agency’s cargo was damaged.

The presence of water in the spacecraft, which splashed down May 18 after a month-long mission to the station “did not cause us any impacts that we know of,” Dan Hartman, deputy program manager for the International Space Station, said in a webcast briefing from the Johnson Space Center in Houston May 21.

Some early return cargo had already been rushed back to Houston by May 21, and the rest of Dragon’s cache was due to arrive May 23, Hartman said during the briefing.

SpaceX spokeswoman Emily Shanklin did not reply to emails requesting comment May 21 and May 22.

Hartman said SpaceX will investigate the cause of the water incursion at its rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, where all Dragon spacecraft are taken for postmission processing.

Dragon returned from the space station May 18, splashing down about 480 kilometers off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, according to a NASA press release issued that day. The spacecraft arrived May 20 at the Port of Long Beach in California, Hartman said.

News that water had been discovered in Dragon was first reported by Aviation Week and Space Technology.

The cargo-delivery mission just completed was the third of 12 that SpaceX owes NASA under the $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract the Hawthorne, California-based company signed in 2008 to haul 20 metric tons of cargo to station through 2015.

NASA plans to extend that contract to cover deliveries through 2018, and to issue a follow-on Commercial Resupply Services contract for deliveries through at least 2020. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., NASA’s other contract cargo hauler, are well positioned to get the follow-on contracts.

NASA ISS Emergency EVA: Expedition 35 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy

Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy (pictured) and Tom Marshburn (out of frame) completed a spacewalk at 2:14 p.m. EDT May 11, 2013. 

The emergency EVA was needed to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Station’s far port truss (P6) leaking ammonia coolant. 

The two NASA astronauts began the 5-hour, 30-minute spacewalk at 8:44 a.m.

A leak of ammonia coolant from the area near or at the location of a Pump and Flow Control Subassembly was detected on Thursday, May 9, prompting engineers and flight controllers to begin plans to support the spacewalk. 

The device contains the mechanical systems that drive the cooling functions for the port truss.

Image Credit: NASA

Emergency Spacewalk: Astronauts Hope New Pump Fixes Ammonia Coolant Leak

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy (top) and Tom Marshburn work outside the International Space Station after replacing an ammonia coolant pump on May 11, 2013. CREDIT: NASA TV

Two spacewalking astronauts may have fixed an ammonia leak outside the International Space Station today (May 11), perhaps bringing the outpost's vital cooling system back up to full strength.

Clad in bulky spacesuits, NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn replaced a pump control box thought to be responsible for the leak of ammonia, which cools down the orbiting lab's systems.

It looks like this fix did the trick, as no ammonia flakes were seen streaming into space when Mission Control turned on the newly installed gear.

Chris Cassidy

"We're not seeing anything," Cassidy said at around 12:35 p.m. EDT (1635 GMT), several minutes after the pump was turned on. "No snow."

NASA officials stopped short of declaring total victory, however, saying that time will tell if the fix holds.

"It will take some diagnostics, still, over the course of the next several days by the thermal systems specialists to fully determine that we have solved the problem of the ammonia leak," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live mission commentary. "But so far, so good."



Cassidy and Marshburn floated outside the space station at 8:44 a.m. EDT (1244 GMT) today, beginning what officials described as a six-hour detective's investigation to find — and hopefully fix — the ammonia leak.

Cassidy, who led the spacewalk, reported seeing "no smoking gun" as he and Marshburn began their inspection of the old ammonia pump control box, one of several on the space station's far left segment, known as the Port 6 truss. It is part of the cooling system for the two wing-like solar arrays extending from the Port 6 segment.

Upon removing the box, the spacewalkers still saw no signs of ammonia flakes.

Tom Marshburn

"It looks really, really clean, surprisingly so," Cassidy said while peering deep inside the box using what looked like a dentist's mirror.

Still, he and Marshburn proceeded to swap out the box, fitting a spare in its place.

The ammonia leak was first spotted by space station astronauts on Thursday (May 9), when the crew reported seeing flakes of frozen coolant floating outside.

They recorded video of the ammonia leak and sent it down to Mission Control for analysis.

While the leak posed no danger to the space station's crew, it could have impacted the amount of power available for daily operations on the orbiting laboratory if left unchecked, NASA officials said.

So Cassidy and Marshburn were sent out on an emergency spacewalk to attempt a fix.

ISS: Suspected Leaky Valve Delays Russian Cosmonaut EVA

This still image from a NASA TV broadcast shows how Russian cosmonauts will move a crane outside the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Aug. 20, 2012.

CREDIT: NASA TV

A suspected leaky valve on the International Space Station stalled the start of a spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts for nearly an hour today (Aug. 20), forcing them to wait in bulky spacesuits until it was deemed safe to venture outside.

Veteran cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko were preparing to begin their space station spacewalk when the leak was detected during air pressure tests.

Russian flight controllers at the station's Mission Control Center in Moscow asked the cosmonauts to stay put until the leaky valve could be isolated.

Padalka, the space station's commander, agreed.

"We're in no rush," Padalka radioed Mission Control in Russian, which was translated in a NASA broadcast.

Flight controllers spent almost an hour trying to isolate the leaky valve and monitoring air pressure inside the station's airlock and adjoining modules.

Ultimately, they radioed good news to the spacewalkers — the leak was resolved and it was safe to proceed. It was welcome news for the cosmonauts.

"We're just hanging here and it's kind of boring," Padalka said.

At 11:37 a.m. EDT (1337 GMT) — nearly an hour late — the two cosmonauts finally opened the space station's airlock hatch and prepared to get to work.