A pair of American astronauts began a spacewalk on Monday to move a stalled rail vehicle outside the International Space Station, NASA said.
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Astronauts had to guide the a rail auto just four inches back into place after releasing the brake handle, and then latch it back to its rightful spot.
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The shorter-than-usual spacewalk ended after three hours and 16 minutes, about half the duration of a regular outing.
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Usually NASA plans spacewalks for months, but because of the urgency of this issue, this spacewalk was planned over the weekend and executed today.
The rail car’s brake was believed to have become stuck unexpectedly last week after it moved about four inches (10 centimetres) from its starting point.
The mobile transport system is normally used to transport people and equipment, including the station’s big robot arm.
For the remainder of the spacewalk, the duo tackled several tasks, including rerouting an Ethernet cable for use in a future Russian science module and putting down cables for future worldwide docking adaptors that will let commercial spacecraft attach to the station.
It’s the seventh spacewalk of the year.
The robotic cargo ship, called Progress 62, is scheduled to launch toward the space station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday at 3:44 a.m. EST (0833 GMT). The railcar must be secured before the Progress resupply spacecraft, which launched early this morning, arrives at the station, bringing 2.8 tons (2.5 metric tons) of food and supplies. It was second spacewalk of Kopra’s career and third for Scott Kelly.
“It’s moving now”, Kelly said while conducting repairs.
British astronaut Tim Peake, who also recently arrived, assisted the astronauts in getting out and back into the station.
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Kelly is on a one-year mission that’s due to end in March.
