International Space Station: Russian astronaut forced to end spacewalk due to faulty battery

A Russian astronaut living at the International Space Station had to cut short his spacewalk by over four hours as the battery inside his spacesuit malfunctioned. NASA, however, said the astronaut and his partner on the spacewalk were never in any danger.

Russian Mission Control ordered Oleg Artemyev, the station commander, to quickly return to the airlock as the voltage of his suit dropped dramatically. They also asked him to hook his suit to the station's power. The hatch remained open as his spacewalking partner, Denis Matveev, tidied up outside, AP reported.

NASA said Matveev remained in space for another hour before he was ordered to go inside the space station. His suit was working fine but he was also ordered to cut the spacewalk as astronauts are not allowed to remain in space alone.

The two Russians were spacewalking to work on a robot arm that had arrived at the space station last year. They installed a camera on the arm before the fault took place. The spacewalk lasted for over 2 hours as against the planned 6 hours and 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, NASA hasn't been spacewalking for months since water seeped into a German astronaut's helmet during a spacewalk. The faulty spacesuit will return this week for further investigation.

In 2013, an Italian spacewalker almost drowned due to water leakage in his helmet.