Andrew Feustel, an astronaut, got soap in his eye and started tearing up. In his words, “my right eye is stinging like crazy” which really sucks because in space, tears “don’t fall off of your eye… they kind of stay there.”
Feustel was spacewalking when the incident occurred and almost had to retreat back to the ISS for safety. The culprit that caused the tears was an anti-fogging solution – pretty much dishwasher soap – that was applied inside of his helmet. The soap flaked off because the solution wasn’t buffed properly. Wax on! Wax off!
Luckily, Feustel resourcefully rubbed his eye against a foam block in his helmet. That foam block is typically used for cleaning ears, but whatever! It’s a helluva lot better than having tears on your eyeball. [AP]
Image credit: Zdorov Kirill Vladimirovich/Shutterstock