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SpaceX’s CRS-3 Dragon recruited for ISS spacesuit relay November 12, 2013 by Chris Bergin SpaceX’s next Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will involve the delivery of a replacement Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), allowing for the return of a faulty suit on the same vehicle when it returns to Earth. Notably, the returning suit won’t be Luca Parmitano’s EMU, after its water leak issues were resolved via successful troubleshooting efforts. EMU Status: Luca Parmitano safely landed back on Earth in the early hours of Monday morning, marking the end of a six month stay on the ISS that included his first two EVAs on the outside of the Station. It was the second of his spacewalks that became the center of the EMU investigation that has been ongoing for some months now, following the early termination of EVA-23 on July 16. The problem related to water leaking and building up in his helmet, around one hour into the planned six hour spacewalk. Despite the issue being extremely serious, Luca’s life was never in immediate danger, thanks to his own, his EVA partner – Chris Cassidy, the ISS and ground control team’s professionalism, as they put into work their extensive training by safely returning the Italian into the safe haven of the Quest Airlock. Technically, the investigation into what went wrong with Luca’s suit began moments after he egressed the airlock and removed his helmet. However, as per NASA’s tried and trusted methodology in solving problems in space, it was the task of experts on the ground to nail down the root cause. That investigation was conducted by NASA’s Anomaly Resolution Team (ART) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, in tandem with hands on evaluations into the suit – known as EMU 3011 – by the ISS crewmembers. The EMU is a highly complex life support apparatus that has proved to be highly reliable during its role of providing safety to astronauts working on the outside of spacecraft. As such, pinpoin