Astronauts help move stalled rail car during spacewalk

NASA’s one-year spaceman, Scott Kelly, and astronaut Timothy Kopra took just a little more than a half-hour to release brake handles on the rail vehicle and help guide it 4 inches (10 centimetres) back into place.

NASA engineers suspect the stalled railcar is the result of a stuck brake handle, according to Kenny Todd, the station’s Mission Integration and Operations Manager at NASA’s Mission Control center in Houston.

The vehicle serves as a mobile base for a Canadian-built robotic crane to move rails outside the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that files about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

After the astronauts moved the rail auto, they routed cables to prepare for a new docking adapter for commercial cargo ships. Since the arrival of the Russian Progress supply ship with the supplies is much awaited at the station, it is highly important that the jammed rail vehicle be latched in its usual place to avoid interference in the ship’s arrival.

If the brake was somehow inadvertently engaged, it may be an easy task to unstick it. The astronauts may then turn to a few other get-ahead tasks as part of their ongoing maintenance and upgrades of the ISS. Kopra, who arrived on the station on December 15, will be making the second spacewalk of his career as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2) wearing the suit with no stripes.

Hopkins praised the astronauts for performing the spacewalk on such short notice. Kelly has been at the International Space Station since March and will return home in 2016 after spending a historic one year in space.

The Russian supply spacecraft is scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday.