NASA Plans Spacewalks to Repair Space Station

After cooling system breaks down

  • Share
  • Read Later

NASA decided Tuesday that two Americans stationed on the International Space Station would conduct a series of space walks starting this week to fix a broken cooling system, the Associated Press reports.

The station’s cooling system broke down last week and the crew, which also includes three Russian and one Japanese astronaut, had to shut off non-vital equipment and scientific experiments.

American Astronaut Rick Mastracchio confirmed the walks in a tweet from space.

NASA has said the astronauts on board the station are safe, but it wants to fix the problem immediately, fearing another equipment malfunction would leave the station exposed to danger.

The walks are scheduled for Saturday, Monday and Wednesday.

Astronauts conducted a space walk to fix the same cooling pump in 2010.

[AP]