Space station mission logs long walk to fix leak

Two United States astronauts successfully dodged highly toxic ammonia flakes during a risky spacewalk Friday to fix a cooling system at the global Space Station.

This was the second spacewalk for Kelly and Lindgren in less than two weeks, after making improvements on the station and carrying out long-term maintenance tasks on October 28.

Kelly and Lindgren did another spacewalk nine days ago to perform maintenance and upgrades outside the ISS. Crews have now spent more than 1,192 hours working outside the orbital laboratory. A subsequent spacewalk involving fellow NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn saw the two replacing the defective cooling pump, which was cited as the source of the ammonia leak in the 2012 spacewalk. While there is now enough ammonia in the system, the refill will increase ammonia margins to better tolerate future losses. Initially the backup radiator that was used was overlapped against the side of the station’s power bind but later on was extended again when the spacewalkers ran short of time to cinch it down. Kelly reported glove damage but it turned out to be a minor one.

In this frame grab from NASA Television, astronauts Scott Kelly and…

It is believed that this is the first time that someone has played Bagpipers in space. Later, they split up to coordinate the disconnection of cooling systems from different locations. This time around, they had to install ammonia jumpers between truss segments. Luckily, this was not the case. All in all, the backup system received 3 kilograms (6.8 pounds) of ammonia added to its 41-kilogram (90 pound) reservoir, with the primary receiving 3.4 kilograms (7.5 pounds) into its 24-kilogram (4 pound) tank.

Earlier in November, alien hunter Scott Waring pointed out a mysterious light seen in the live feed beamed back by a camera on the ISS. After that, he began setting up the vent tool to allow excess ammonia in the fill line to prevent over-pressurization of the PVR system.

NASA must focus on addressing major health hazards for humans to make the three-year, round-trip trek to Mars, according to an audit – NASA’s Efforts to Manage Health and Human Performance Risks for Space Exploration – led by Paul Martin, NASA’s inspector general.