NASA TV will air live coverage of the spacewalk today (November 6, 2015). Three years prior, a similar leak occurred and required an entire new pump to fix the damage.
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“Now leak-free, officials made a decision to restore the port truss cooling system to its primary method of dispelling heat”, NASA said in a statement.
The astronauts also spent the time working on lubricating the space station’s robotic arm, and other basic maintenance tasks. In previous instances where ammonia was leaking from the space station’s coolant system, astronauts were instructed to wait outside of the station until the traces of ammonia were sublimated away by the Sunday. Initially the backup radiator that was used was overlapped against the side of the station’s power bind but later on was extended again when the spacewalkers ran short of time to cinch it down.
This time Lindgren is the lead spacewalker, known as “EV-1”. The size of a football field, the ISS circles the globe every 90 minutes. Five space agencies involving 15 countries built and operate the craft, which took more than 40 USA and Soviet flights to build module by module and the almost 200 spacewalks to maintain.
As in last week’s spacewalk, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui will assist in the astronauts’ preparation and exit from the space station, while also helping coordinate from inside during the mission.
In the first-ever spacewalk of the astronauts past week, headed by Kelly, the duo was on distinct tracks while performing a number of long-term maintenance tasks outside the station.
It has marked the 190th spacewalk outside the station, totaling over 1,192 hours of spacewalking time. A spacewalk back in 2012 had reconfigured a few plumbing there in an effort to stop a leak. Excess ammonia would be left in a bag outside the station. Ammonia crystals are highly toxic and can easily cling to spacesuits. The first Mexico-born astronaut was Rodolfo Neri Vela, who travelled 2.4 million miles and logged over 165 hours during his first and only mission in 1980.
After opening the valve, they moved out of the way and inspected each other´s suits for any signs of ammonia flakes.
The backup system holds about 90 lbs.
Later, the pair worked together to vent off residual ammonia from a plumbing line.
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As such, the ISS program would like to Return To Original Configuration (RTOC) the P6 PVTCS, by transferring channel 2B’s cooling from the TTCR back to the PVR, and stowing the then unused TTCR in order to protect it as a spare for the future. NASA engineers said the radiator would not be at risk by staying outstretched.
