A successful spacewalk for a change

The astronauts managed to complete the second spacewalk designed to repair the station's cooling system which had broken down due to the disconnection of the ammonia pipes. A third spacewalk is expected due to the failures of the first spacewalk

International Space Station 24 crew members Doug Wilcock and Tracy Caldwell today (Wednesday) completed the second spacewalk to replace the ammonia pump of the station's cooling system. The spacewalk ended at 15:53 ​​(22:53 Israel time) after a seven and a quarter hour stay in space. Currently, these are positive results compared to the failure to complete the spacewalk mission that took place last Saturday.

Originally, they were supposed to install the replacement pump today and finish the process, but the space walk they performed last Saturday was not completed after one of the ammonia pipes got stuck and could not be removed from the cooling system. Therefore, today's spacewalk was assigned to complete the remaining tasks from Saturday and NASA is planning another spacewalk, most likely for Sunday in order to complete the installation of the pump.

The spacewalk began at 08:27 EST (15:27 Israel time). At the beginning of the mission, Wilcock managed to close the disconnected valve of the last fluid connector of the broken ammonia pump. No leakage was measured. He then managed to disconnect the last liquid pipe from the ammonia pump.

Coldwell Dyson disconnected five power connectors and data cables while Wilcock removed four straps from the old pump. The pump module was removed from the station assembly using a pry bar. After the work was completed, the astronauts parked the pump in a cargo facility on the mobile base system of the station chassis.

NASA will now conduct a situation assessment during which it will be decided when the third spacewalk will take place during which the replacement pump will be installed. It probably won't happen before Sunday.