New pump restores space station systems to full power
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 04:54PM
Astronauts revive space station's cooling system
Photo: Reuters/NASA TV
By Irene Klotz
Florida (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts revived the International Space Station's cooling system on Monday during a third outing to replace a failed pump.
Station flight engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson slipped outside the orbital complex for the third time in 10 days to try to resolve a problem that took out half the station's cooling lines.
The July 31 shutdown triggered power conservation measures that halted science experiments and left the station without many of its backup systems.
While the crew was not in any danger, NASA was eager to restore the station to full power, but the repair proved tougher than originally envisioned.
During the first spacewalk on August 7, Wheelock couldn't wrest free a quick-disconnect fitting on one of the cooling system's ammonia lines. Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson returned to the station's exterior truss on August 11 to continue work to remove the failed pump module, needed to push ammonia through the lines. That spacewalk ended with the old pump removed, but the new one not yet installed.
During Monday's seven-hour-and-20-minute spacewalk, the astronauts bolted a spare pump into the truss and hooked up electrical connections and fluid lines.
"The pump is looking good," Oscar Koehler, from NASA's Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, radioed to the crew.
"Ahh, sweet!" replied Wheelock.
The U.S. space agency now hopes to restore the station to full power by Thursday, said NASA spokesman Rob Navias.
Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson still have some more work to do. In addition to putting away the old pump, they need to hook up an extension cable so the next shuttle crew can install a cargo pod that will be left permanently attached to the station for storage.
NASA has just two shuttle missions remaining to complete the $100 billion station, a project of 16 nations that has been under construction 220 miles above Earth since 1998.
Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to make its last visit to the station in November with the Leonardo storage pod and spare parts and equipment. Shuttle Endeavour is expected to follow in February with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics experiment.
Congress is considering adding an extra shuttle flight to resupply the station next summer before the three-ship fleet is retired.
IMPORTANT: No advice is offered or given in this article or this publication. PLEASE ALWAYS REFER TO AN EXPERT before acting on any information contained in any of our stories.
Copyright © 2006-10, Blogertize Publications (http://www.blogertize.com), except as otherwise indicated. Text may be excerpted UNALTERED with FULL CREDIT and LINK. PHOTOS MAY NOT BE COPIED, DOWNLOADED OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION. Note: Some photos of real people may be models used to illustrate the editorial concept. MISSION: "You Need to Know" Our publications are daily online newspapers and magazines (webzines), plus delivered Ezines. Our stories also appear on various newswire services and are picked up in other publications. Our reporters and journalists break or report stories and their sources and source information are protected by the doctrine of free press as expressed in the First Amendment, Reporter's Privilege statutes, and also the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. COMMENTS FROM USERS: We invite dialogue and comments from our readers and limit moderation to obscenity and privacy issues, however WE ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR THIS CONTENT. We believe in the doctrine of FREE SPEECH. COMMENTS AND MOST STORIES ARE FROM OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS AND READERS AND NOT A REFLECTION OF THE OPINIONS OF THIS MAGAZINE. The opinions expressed by our writers, columnists and reporters are their opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this magazine, its writers and staff, or Blogertize Publications.TM - Our magazine names are trademarked. Our publications team provide this ezine and web site and its contents in good faith but makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to this web site or its contents. We disclaim any representations and warranties, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of any kind. In addition, we do not represent or warrant that the information accessible via this web site or the products or services sold or given free on it are accurate, complete or current. Errors and Omissions Excepted. By using/visiting this site you agree that use information herein is at your own risk. PRIVACY: SPAM POLICY: We do not use, nor do we condone the use of unsolicited bulk email. Our email system is an opt-in only. Please report any incidents of unsolicited email coming from or mentioning our domain to editor AT blogeritze.com. All matters will be investigated and dealt with promptly. Jurisdiction: Any action or dispute arising from the use of information on this site will be deemed to have been undertaken and concluded in Toronto, Canada and will be interpreted, construed and enforced in all respects in accordance with the laws of Canada and all parties thereto shall submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Ontario courts. A visitor agrees that the applicable law to be applied shall, in all cases, be that of the city of the web site owner, namely, Toronto, Canada.
Persona Corp. and Blogertize publishes several webzines, magazines, e-zines for news, entertainment and information, but cautions readers to read the USAGE NOTICE. Our mandate: "You Need to Know!"
• Auto News (autonews.co): The latest news, reviews and views on all things automobile
• Automobile Buzz (automobilebuzz.com): Everyone's favorite zine with the latest road tests, videos, and breaking news with special focus on sportscars and greencars
• Films and Books Magazine - News from Hollywood and New York, Books and Films
• Webzine (webzine.co): Reviews of the best, newest and brightest of webzines, print to web conversion zines, ezines and online publications.
* Noetic News: News, Features, Research on the Science of Consciousness
* Dog and Cat World: You can't know too much about your best friend.
* Advance Magazine - Body, Mind, Spirit
* LINK Magazine: Good News Report
* Buddha Weekly - Buddhist news, events, profiles from all traditions.
Social Network
Contributors
• Derek Armstrong, Chief Crime Correspondent, Crime Report USA, contributor various
Reader Comments