Space station techies study oxygen loss

KOROLEV, Russia, June 25 (UPI) -- The head of the International Space Station's Russian sector said engineers Friday studied why oxygen leaked out of an astronaut's suit.

Oxygen pressure in U.S. flight engineer Michael Fincke's spacesuit dropped while he was on a spacewalk outside the station, Novosti reported.

He returned safely after the problem was detected.

"Now we are trying to understand why oxygen leaked from the space suit," Vladimir Solovyov said. "So far we have failed to create a similar situation in which pressure in the oxygen bottle could fall so rapidly."

Solovyov explained there were two oxygen tanks, the main and the reserve, in the Russian Orlan-M full-pressure spacesuits the astronauts were wearing.

"We registered a considerable drop in pressure in the main tank," he said, "In the tank oxygen is under very high pressure, more than 450 atmospheres."

It was the second aborted spacewalk in a row, the BBC reported. Padalka and Fincke had hoped to repair one of the gyroscopes that keep the space station stable in flight.

The pair will try again next week to complete the spacewalk.