First part of the ISS repair successfully run - derStandard.at

Washington Two astronauts on the International Space Station began with the replacement of a faulty cooling pump on the outside of the International Space Station. To this end, the Americans Mike Hopkins rose (upper panel) and Rick Mastracchio on Saturday from five hours and 28 minutes in space. The work went so smoothly and quickly that the duo was able to meet even more than his quota.

re water in the suit?

Thus, instead of the two planned possibly only one other outdoor applications necessary to complete the work. This was initially scheduled for Monday. But when they return to the station there were problems with Mastracchios space suit. In the pressure lock may be water occurred in a part of the suit, said the NASA.

In July, a outdoor use had to be canceled because the helmet of the astronaut Luca Parmitano had accumulated water – a much more dangerous problem. The helmets of the astronauts are therefore now been fitted with a kind of snorkel to breathe on the head even in water clusters can.

Because Mastracchios problems the control center in Houston has decided to use a spare suit. However, this still needs to be changed and adapted. The second outdoor use is therefore now scheduled for Tuesday. The U.S. space agency stressed that at no time was one of the two astronauts have been in danger. Originally, NASA had gone out of a total of three exits.

The task

Hopkins and Mastracchios task on Saturday was to dismantle the defective pump. They managed to NASA but additionally According to stow the device by using the crane arm of the station in a holder on the ISS – a job that should have been done only at the second outdoor use. Now the space agency hopes that the next exit is already a new pump can be installed.

The refrigerator-sized pump, together with another on an ammonia cycle at the ISS exterior that the equipment for the space station remains cool. On 11 December, she was suddenly failed, probably due to a defective valve. After that, the energy consumption in the Russian part of the station had to be clearly shut down to mitzuversorgen the U.S. module. In Japan and in the European part of the ISS half of the systems was turned off. (APA / red, derStandard.at, 22, 12, 2013)