United States astronauts on risky spacewalk to fix ammonia pump

A group of spacewalking astronauts were performing a plumbing job outside the global Space Station (ISS) on Friday when they encountered minor glove damage and leaking ammonia.

After they re-extended the backup radiator, the duo kept their tools and tethers where they made their way back to the Quest airlock, that ended the spacewalk at 2:10 P.M. EST making the total duration of the entire spacewalk lasting for seven hours and 48 minutes.

While trying to open and close the valve at today’s work to top off the ammonia supply, Kelly and Lindgren reported seeing icy ammonia flakes float away from the site. But before going back in, they would need to make certain that any traces of ammonia had been removed by the Sunday. Although there have been more than 365 NASA astronauts to date, there remains firsts to be achieved and all that you have to do to claim them is get chosen for the corps. The spacewalkers had to undo jury-rigged repairs made to a leaky cooling line three years ago. After that, they will top off ammonia in the system.

Friday’s excursion essentially involved work on the space station’s cooling system.

Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren switched their spacesuits to battery power at 6:22 am (1122 GMT) and floated outside the orbiting outpost moments later, according to a live broadcast on NASA television.

“This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s human space flight program”, said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a release. Ever since then, engineers have wanted to switch cooling back to the primary radiator and to preserve the secondary as a backup. “I’ll be back w you again soon!”

Their October 28 spacewalk featured a robot-arm lube job and other maintenance.

A record for NASA astronauts shows that Kelly recently marked his 224th day in Earth orbit. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov helped them out of their suits once the astronauts repressurized.

His identical twin, Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut, wished him luck.

NASA had to scrap plans this year to outfit the station with two new parking spots for commercial space taxis under development by Boeing and privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX.

Astronauts must understand that initial trips to Mars may come with risks that will not threaten crews in subsequent years, Martin wrote in the report.