NASA astronaut Terry Virts was surprised when he discovered a small amount of water inside his helmet after conducting a spacewalk this week at the International Space Station.

The water leak, however, didn't prevent him from doing his duties and fortunately, was not a serious threat to his safety in outer space.

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Virts and fellow astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore were outside the space station for almost several hours repairing the orbital space lab's robotic arm and performing maintenance.

Upon the discoverin the water leak, Virts immediately informed fellow astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti who quickly sent an alert sent to Mission Control in Houston, Texas. Cristoforetti carefully examined the helmet after she helped Virts out of the faulty gear.

She then confirmed was indeed moisture mostly trapped in the Helmet Absorption Pad, describing it as wet and cold.

Mission Control requested cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov use a syringe to take out as much water as possible from the top of the helmet. It seems water accumulated in the white plastic pad located at the top of the gear and around both ear cups. Shkaplerov estimates there was 15 millimeters of water inside the helmet. 

This wasn't the first incident where water collected inside an astronaut's spacesuit during a spacewalk.

In July 2013, Luca Parmitano collected from 1 to 1.5 liters of water in his suit and helmet that caused fears Parmitano could drown in his own helmet in space. NASA cut short the spacewalk so as not to endanger Parmitano.

In another spacewalk during Christmas Eve last year, NASA reported there was another water intrusion inside the helmet of a crew member that was noticed during the re-pressurization of the crew lock, which is the area where astronauts enter and exit the ISS.

The NASA team will still decide to go ahead with this Sunday's third and final planned spacewalk.

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