Trending News

Long Overdue Spacewalk the First of Many, as ISS Finally Moving on From Astronaut Helmet Flooding Scare

By

The crewmembers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) performed the first routine reparations in a spacewalk in more than a year.

According to the Associated Press, the ISS has not done a regularly scheduled spacewalk since July 2013 when an astronaut's helmet flooded. Reid Wiseman, an American, and Alexander Gerst, a German, set out Tuesday to store a broken pump in its rightful place.

It had been moved to a temporary location on the ISS' exterior after a cooling pump malfunction last Dec. About the size of a refrigerator, the 780-pound pump was overdue to be moved back to where it belongs.

The astronauts were also apparently excited to get out of the cabin, the AP reported.

"Wow, looks like we've almost got a full moon out here. It's beautiful," Wiseman radioed to mission control.

NASA has scheduled a follow-up spacewalk for Oct. 15, which has taken priority over a built up shortlist of tasks since the incident in July 2013. NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore will accompany Wiseman on the next spacewalk, Space.com reported, to replace some dead electronics.

"When you look out a little further as to how the EVAs stack up after the first of the year out into the spring, we're really going to start this transformation of the space station," Kenny Todd, space station integration operations manager, said during a news conference last week. "We're going to be doing the things we need to do on these EVAs to prep for moving some modules around.

"All that is in preparation for being able to support future [commercial] crewed vehicles coming to station. We're trying to get out in front of that... We'll be prepping for moving modules, we'll be installing a new docking adapter system. All of that will be happening throughout the next several months onboard the station."

© 2024 University Herald, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Join the Discussion
Real Time Analytics