NASA Updates Media on Spacewalk Safety Investigation

NASA will host a teleconference at 2 p.m. EST today to discuss the findings of an investigation into the July 2013 spacewalk at the International Space Station when water built up in an astronaut's spacesuit helmet.

Telecon participants are:
• Chris Hansen, chairman of the Mishap Investigation Board
• William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate
• Michael Suffredini, International Space Station program manager

Soon after the incident, NASA created a Mishap Investigation Board to identify factors that may have contributed to the incident and recommend changes that could be implemented to prevent a similar situation from occurring again. This safety investigation ran concurrently with an engineering investigation into the equipment failure.

NASA is concluding the mishap investigation and will share the board's detailed report of evidence and lessons learned with human spaceflight stakeholders inside and outside the agency. Information from the report will be integrated into the engineering investigation and directly benefit the ongoing search for a root cause.

Media must register to participate in the teleconference no later than 1 p.m. EST today by contacting Josh Byerly at 281-483-5111 or josh.byerly@nasa.gov.

Briefing materials and a copy of the mishap report will be available when the teleconference begins at:



The teleconference will be streamed live online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station