Politics & Government

VIDEO: Saturday Spacewalk to Fix Space Station Ammonia Leak OK'd

Two astronauts will begin six-hour-plus mission at 5:15 a.m. Pacific time, which will be aired live on NASA TV.

 

International Space Station officials gave the green light Friday for a spacewalk early Saturday morning by two Expedition 35 astronauts who will try to repair a pump controller that's been leaking ammonia.

In the attached video, the fluid discharge is seen as "snow flakes" when it escapes from the damaged space station's pump controller.

Find out what's happening in Los Gatoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

NASA announced on its website that crew members Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn would undertake the fixes after a review of procedures, which are not life-threatening.

The ammonia leak was discovered on Thursday in the station's so-called port truss, or P6. It was launched aboard the shuttle Endeavour to the station as the oldest component of its backbone in November 2000, according to NASA.

Find out what's happening in Los Gatoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The spacewalk will be the 168th at the space station and the third for the astronauts, who conducted two such missions together during the STS-127 mission of the shuttle Endeavour to the station in July 2009, NASA said on its website.

The public can watch the repairs live through NASA TV starting at 4 a.m. Pacific time, which is 7 a.m. Eastern time.

NASA said the spacewalk is expected to begin around 8:15 a.m. Eastern time, or 5:15 a.m. Pacific time. The job is expected to last more than six hours, according to officials. A post-spacewalk briefing will be broadcast on NASA TV no earlier than 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, agency officials added.


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