The time an astronaut nearly drowned in space

One of the scariest moments in spacewalking history happened on July 16, 2013, when European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet filled with water. A blog post written by Parmitano after the incident details his experience in harrowing detail:

The water has also almost completely covered the front of my visor, sticking to it and obscuring my vision. I realise that to get over one of the antennae on my route I will have to move my body into a vertical position, also in order for my safety cable to rewind normally. At that moment, as I turn ‘upside-down’, two things happen: the Sun sets, and my ability to see – already compromised by the water—completely vanishes, making my eyes useless; but worse than that, the water covers my nose— really awful sensation that I make worse by my vain attempts to move the water by shaking my head. By now, the upper part of the helmet is full of water and I can’t even be sure that the next time I breathe I will fill my lungs with air and not liquid. To make matters worse, I realise that I can’t even understand which direction I should head in to get back to the airlock. I can’t see more than a few centimetres in front of me, not even enough to make out the handles we use to move around the Station.

A subsequent test of Parmitano’s suit recreated the issue, showing the frightening build-up of water in the helmet (pictured above). Water continues to be a problem for NASA. This past May, the space agency suspended non-critical ISS spacewalks on account of the issue while an investigation takes place. The issue will likely be remedied with the next generation of spacesuits, but for now these suits, which date back to the Shuttle era, are less than ideal.