Drowning in the universe: The moment

The incident on the International Space Station that year became one of the most horrifying moments in the history of ISS.

After the end of the Cold War, in 1992, Russia and the United States quickly embarked on a 1-0-2 space project in history: Building an international-scale space station outside Earth's orbit. .

With a budget of up to US $ 100 billion, the International Space Station (ISS) officially went into operation in 1998, and at the same time became the most expensive and largest Earth-based artificial satellite in human history. hitherto.

20 years after its birth, ISS has contributed a lot of cosmic achievements that are useful for people in areas such as meteorology, astronomy, physics, biology . in order to create a science-based basis. service for space tourism or human living in outer space in the future.

ISS is the most expensive and largest Earth-based artificial satellite in human history so far.

As an international space station, ISS is currently a living and working place for many astronauts from many different countries, in which the US Space and Aeronautics Agency (NASA) plays a huge role in taking - welcoming people to ISS.

About 400km from the ground, 465 tons of "mobile home" is always hidden from the cosmic dangers that the generation of astronauts and NASA in particular always upholds consciousness.

Only happened five years ago, the incident of Italian astronauts almost died on the ISS itself became one of the most horrifying moments in NASA history.

One morning in 2013 on the International Space Tram (ISS)

Chris Cassidy, NASA astronaut and a Navy SEAL Navy special task force, wakes up on his 43rd morning in space. The first thing he did was open the laptop to read the daily report.

On the screen, Chris Cassidy quickly receives an unexpected report from the control center: An incident occurred outside the ISS station.

It's not an emergency, but Chris Cassidy told himself this case had to be fixed as soon as possible. After discussing with the remaining 5 astronauts in the astronaut (CAPCOM), Chris Cassidy decided to wait for Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who was about to go to ISS, to go out together EVA (the outer space). to evaluate and fix the problem.

A talented young aeronautical engineer from the European Space Agency (ESA), who has four years of experience in space, and was a former fighter pilot of the Italian Air Force with 2,000 hours of flying over 40 Different types of aircraft and an experienced diver, Luca Parmitano soon got sympathy from Chris Cassidy.

That's why, the CAPCOM commander decided to join Luca Parmitano on this EVA mission.

When Luca Parmitano successfully landed on ISS, the two astronauts soon joined the training before officially embarking on the EVA mission to walk outside to troubleshoot outside ISS.

The countdown seconds from the dead

One week later, on July 16, 2013 .

After fully preparing the dress, Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano perform the task of walking outside the ISS station to fix the problem. While Chris Cassidy followed the design railing along the ISS station to the data cable area to repair the short circuit, at the bottom, Luca Parmitano was approaching the area of ​​the connector and pipeline outside a frame. The station's name is called Z1 rig.

Both completed the five-minute task faster than the 45 minutes expected outside of EVA. When Luca Parmitano moved to another part of the ISS to weld the cracks that appeared in the module, he suddenly felt a liquid on the back of his neck.

Hovering at a height of 400km above the ground, the outside is a large space with a lot of danger, but even a small negligence can make an astronaut run away, plus the feeling of something wrong is happening. This causes Luca Parmitano to calm himself as quickly as possible.

Luca Parmitano judges the situation: His helmet has a small hole in the back, where oxygen is transported from the rear backpack. And of course, what that small hole transports cannot be water!

Knowing the astronaut suit, he knew clearly that the water was pumped continuously through the cooling system in the suit he was wearing, but the liquid was completely sealed, there was no case of water leaking and appearing. This is fine at the back of his neck.

The worst happened when the water began to rise gradually in the helmet of Luca Parmitano. Initially, water intruding on his headset's microphones made the communication with the center and Chris Cassidy interrupted. At this time, Luca Parmitano decided to return to the ISS.

However, the move is directly proportional to the water level rising in the helmet of Luca Parmitano. Water began to invade the nose and eyes of the 36-year-old astronaut.

Instead of breathing in pure oxygen, Luca Parmitano now felt the water penetrate his lungs. Due to the loss of sight because of water, he was forced to follow the cable system and the railing along the ISS to return to the cabin.

Water invaded his ears, nose and eyes."The death has come?"- He whispered bitterly.Illustration.

As an experienced diver, Luca Parmitano is able to hold his breath for a few minutes, however, in this situation of "a thousand pounds of hair", every moment is priced equal to the life of the astronaut.

When Chris Cassidy realized his teammate's abnormality, he tried to move to Luca Parmitano to rescue. However, a strong life instinct and a sufficiently alert mind of a Air Force Lieutenant helped him fight to the end with death.

In the end, Luca Parmitano touched the wind. Fortunately, Chris Cassidy just arrived, he helps his comrades back into the compartment and quickly frees Luca Parmitano from his full helmet.

However, due to the weightless environment, Luca Parmitano's ears are still full of water. Thanks to the emergency skills of another teammate, Luca Parmitano finally survived and awoke.

"The feeling at that time was terrible. I had never experienced something similar in my life. Like a blindfolded person and moved at a height of 400km, while the water could fill your mouth, nose and eyes. I think I will be unconscious and then the worst (death) will happen sooner or later.

There was a time when I wanted to open the helmet. I knew it was terrible, it would make me lose consciousness immediately. However, the feeling of drowning in a small hat is really a lifelong haunting experience. " - Luca Parmitano recounted the horrific event of his life a few days later.

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano.

"The intense calmness and Luca Parmitano's well-trained spirit helped him escape in a narrow distance." - according to a report of 222 pages of NASA's Mishap Investigation Board investigation.

After the space incident NASA called "extremely serious cases" and became one of the most frightening moments in the history of ISS, the agency set up a committee to investigate the cause of the leak. leaked into the helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano.

However, six months after the EVA mission of Luca Parmitano and Chris Cassidy, space engineers still could not determine the exact cause of the water leak, although they quickly discovered the broken part and made improvements to the Astronaut suit later.

The engineers added a spare snorkel in the helmet of the astronaut suit to prevent this dangerous incident from happening again.

The incident in the EVA mission of astronaut Luca Parmitano on July 16, 2013 became one of the dreadful moments in the history of the ISS International Space Station. No one was killed, but this accident made many generations of highly-aware international astronauts aware of the dangers of lurking in space.

For astronauts working on the ISS station in particular, they are not only talented, have the skills to live and work in the universe with a high will and spirit, which they always equip themselves with. is the psychology "can lose his life at any time beyond" graveyard "large space!"

Everything bad can always happen - That's why people call astronauts the cosmic heroes!