NASA astronauts don snorkels, go into space to fix another problem
24 Dec 2013 3:37 AM IST
The spacewalk, which is being broadcast live on NASA Television, is the first for NASA since July when the spacesuit helmet worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano began filling with water, a situation that could have caused him to drown.
Saturday’s spacewalk was prompted by the 11 December shutdown of one of the station’s two ammonia cooling systems, which forced the crew to turn off non-essential equipment and shut down dozens of science experiments. While the six-member crew is not in danger, the remaining cooling system cannot support the three laboratories and other modules on the US side of the $100 billion station, a project of 15 nations. The Russian side of the station has a separate cooling system. Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston tried devising ways to bypass a suspected faulty pump valve, but with time running short, managers decided to have astronauts replace the pump, located outside the station, with a spare.
The work is expected to take station flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins three spacewalks to complete, the first of which began at 1201 GMT on Saturday as the station sailed 418 km over the southern Atlantic Ocean.
Saturday’s spacewalk was prompted by the 11 December shutdown of one of the station’s two ammonia cooling systems, which forced the crew to turn off non-essential equipment and shut down dozens of science experiments. While the six-member crew is not in danger, the remaining cooling system cannot support the three laboratories and other modules on the US side of the $100 billion station, a project of 15 nations. The Russian side of the station has a separate cooling system. Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston tried devising ways to bypass a suspected faulty pump valve, but with time running short, managers decided to have astronauts replace the pump, located outside the station, with a spare.
The work is expected to take station flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins three spacewalks to complete, the first of which began at 1201 GMT on Saturday as the station sailed 418 km over the southern Atlantic Ocean.
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