Two US astronauts have made a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk to repair the International Space Station's cooling system.
It was the second spacewalk in four days for astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins.
The pair removed a faulty ammonia pump at the International Space Station during Saturday's outing.
It is only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk in NASA history. Pic: Nasa They have now installed a new pump in what is hoped will be the final fix at the system.
First, the astronauts bolted down the pump, then worked to connect ammonia fluid lines. Last was a series of electrical connectors.
"It's like Christmas morning opening up a little present here," Mr Mastracchio said as he checked his toolkit.
Later, as he worked to remove the spare pump from its storage shelf, he commented: "Now it really feels like I'm unwrapping a present."
The ISS flies about 250 miles above Earth. Pic: Nasa The spacewalk had been originally planned for Monday, but was delayed by one day to give Mr Mastracchio time to switch to another suit.
He inadvertently hit a water switch in the air lock at the end of Saturday's excursion, and a bit of water entered his suit, making it unusable this week.
It is only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk in NASA history, the previous one in 1999 during a Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.
One of two cooling systems on the US side of the space station - a $100bn project of 15 nations - shut down on December 11 due to a faulty valve.
The cooling system shut down on December 11. Pic: Nasa The fault prompted the six-man crew to turn off all non-essential equipment, including experiments.
:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Spacewalk On Christmas Eve For US Astronauts
Dengan url
http://majutakgentarian.blogspot.com/2013/12/spacewalk-on-christmas-eve-for-us.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Spacewalk On Christmas Eve For US Astronauts
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Spacewalk On Christmas Eve For US Astronauts
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar