The decision was taken by the U.S. space agency a few hours after the first spacewalk in connection with the failure of the suit 53-year-old Amerykaniana Rick Mastracchio. “Configuration problem” occurred at the end of Saturday’s work in outer space, in which he participated Mastracchio along with other American 44-year-old Mike Hopkins.
the information Sky News television that the problem was getting water to sublimator – a device that is responsible for getting rid of excess heat from the suit. The cause of failure could be the action itself Mastracchio, who inadvertently started the switch of water, staying longer in the airlock of the International Space Station (ISS).
ISS astronauts completed on Saturday, the first stage of repair of one of the two cooling systems. Mastracchio and Hopkins went into space to begin the replacement of a defective pump pumping ammonia, which is used as a cooling agent. During the spacewalk removed the old pump, it was a difficult operation because the pump is the size of a refrigerator and has a mass of 353 kg.
When first starting the astronauts prepared only front works by disconnecting wires, removing the old pump and preparing backup. It was only during the second exit on Christmas Eve, join the new assembly. He had come on Monday, but as a result of Saturday’s fault the deadline was moved to Tuesday. Any third exit planned for Dec. 25. If it happened, it would be the second in the history of the cosmos out at Christmas. The first took place in 1973 during a mission to Skylab.
According to the Associated Press Saturday work pace was so fast that repairs can be completed during the second exit. The command center took even consider the possibility of extending the mission Saturday, but cold and discomfort Mastracchio forced to return to the station.
NASA has before repairing special security measures to avoid the reimposition of the accident, which occurred in July, when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly died when his helmet was flooded with water leaking from the cooling system of the suit. Although the exact causes of that test failures are not specifically identified.
In connection with that event in the helmets of American astronauts installed a special tube for emergency breathing. They will be used in the event of water entering the helmet.
On Saturday, in the middle of the work Mastracchio had to raise the temperature in the shoes due to the significant chilling of the feet. Astronaut also complained generally feeling unwell. After securing the old pump and tools needed for the dismantling of the men were permitted to complete the mission. The failure has been detected already in the station, when the astronauts were in the airlock.
NASA experts believe that the pump replacement could not be put off, because if there is a failure of the second cooling system, the station will be seriously compromised. The threat may be so large that you will have to evacuate the entire crew.
From the time of failure, that is, from December 11, air-conditioning inside the station provides a second, back-up system. It works independently of the first, but his run made it necessary to exclude parts of the apparatus, which is not required.
NASA ensures that the lives of six members of the ISS crew is not at risk.
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