NASA Astronauts begin 6-hour spacewalk

It’s the second spacewalk in 1 1/2 weeks for Kelly, more than halfway through a one-year flight, and fellow US astronaut Kjell (chell) Lindgren (LEND-grin).

Two USA astronauts stepped out on a spacewalk Friday to complete the fix of an ammonia cooling system at the global Space Station, AFP reported. They got started an hour early, eager to make the home improvements.

This will be Kelly’s second spacewalk of his entire career and the 33nd in America’s 50-year history of spacewalking.

“The training we do in the NBL is terrific, and I think when you’ve run in the pool as many times as we have already a lot of that muscle memory and eye-hand coordination comes back very quickly”, Lindgren said. The Photovoltaic Thermal Control System dissipates heat generated at the space station from radiators attached to the truss structure. The ammonia leak subsequently was fixed another way – by replacing a failed pump – so NASA wanted the system back in its original setup.

During a spacewalk October 28, Kelly and Lindgren carried out routine maintenance and laid out power and data cables needed for new docking mechanisms that will be installed later. His companion for the long haul is Russian Mikhail Kornienko.

The spacewalk is the 190th supporting assembly and maintenance of the station whose first modules were flown to orbit in 1998.

On November 2, NASA and its global partners celebrated 15 continuous years of human occupancy aboard the research laboratory orbiting 250 miles overhead.