Spacewalk suspended after possible leak reported in American astronaut's helmet

U.S. space agency NASA cut short a spacewalk on the international space station after one of the astronauts reported a possible in his helmet, NASA said Friday.

NASA said the move was taken as a precaution after "a small water bubble" was detected in the helmet of astronaut Tim Kopra.

"Today's spacewalk by Tim Kopra and Tim Peake (has) be terminated," NASA TV Commentator Rob Navias said. "The crew is not in any danger whatsoever."

The incident is reminiscent of a 2013 spacewalk, during which a potentially deadly helmet water leak nearly drowned an Italian astronaut.

Friday's spacewalk, the first in the new year, began at 7:48 a.m. EST (1248 GMT) and ended at 12:31 p.m. EST (1731 GMT). It was originally planned to last for six hours and a half.

The spacewalk took Kopra and Britain's rookie spaceman Peake only two hours to complete the replacement of a failed voltage regulator that caused a loss of power to one of the station's eight power channels last November.

The duo then moved to other tasks, including the routing of cables in advance of International Docking Adapter installment work to support future U.S. commercial crew vehicles, before the spacewalk was terminated.

The spacewalk is the third in Kopra's career and the first for Peake, and the 192nd for maintenance of the space station.

Peake is Britain's first professional astronaut and the first British astronaut to fly as a member of the European Space Agency.

Before the spacewalk, Peake tweeted: "Popping outside for a walk tomorrow. Exhilarated -- but no time to dwell on emotions." Endit