CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) An impromptu spacewalk over the weekend seems to have fixed a big ammonia leak at the International Space Station, NASA said Thursday. <\/p>\n
The \"gusher\" erupted a week ago, prompting the hastiest repair job ever by residents of the orbiting lab. Spacewalking astronauts replaced a suspect ammonia pump on Saturday, just two days after the trouble arose. <\/p>\n
NASA is now calling the old, removed pump \"Mr. Leaky,\" said flight controller Anthony Vareha. <\/p>\n
\"Right now, we're feeling pretty good. We definitely got the big leak,\" Vareha said in a NASA broadcast from Mission Control in Houston. <\/p>\n
Vareha said engineers don't know whether the pump replacement also took care of a smaller leak that has plagued the system for years. It will take at least a couple months of monitoring to know the full status. <\/p>\n
Ammonia is used as a coolant in the space station's radiator system. <\/p>\n
The leak forced one of the station's seven power channels to go offline. NASA hopes to resume normal operations early next week, following computer software updates. <\/p>\n
One of the spacewalkers, NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, is now back on Earth. He returned this week aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, ending a five-month mission. <\/p>\n
The other spacewalker, Christopher Cassidy, a recent arrival, spent Thursday chatting with three of the actors and a writer-producer of the newest Star Trek movie, \"Star Trek into Darkness.\" The film was beamed up to the space station a few days before its U.S. opening in theaters Thursday. <\/p>\n
Cassidy watched the first half-hour of the movie while he was exercising Thursday morning and offered a stellar review. <\/p>\n
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Visit link: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) An impromptu spacewalk over the weekend seems to have fixed a big ammonia leak at the International Space Station, NASA said Thursday Continue reading
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