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Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio on in the International Space Station’s Columbus lab last month.
NASA
NASA
NASA has decided to go ahead with a series of spacewalks to fix a broken cooling system aboard the International Space Station.
The decision was made Tuesday by station managers. They said the extra-vehicular activity should take place as soon as possible to replace a coolant pump that contains a bad valve.
The Associated Press says:
“The spacewalks are taking priority over the launch of a supply ship from Virginia. The delivery had been scheduled for this week, but is now delayed until January.â€
NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins, two of the six international crew, have already tried on EVA suits in preparation for the spacewalking repair.
“It’s a serious problem, obviously,†Mastracchio told Space.com on Friday, before NASA gave the official green light. “It’s something we have to fix. It’s not something I’m worried about though.â€
As we reported last week, problems with the cooling system are not entirely new. In 2010, astronauts did three spacewalks to fix a similar problem.