US space agency NASA was scrambling Monday to arrange a spacewalk to fix a cooling system that broke on the International Space Station over the weekend, prompting the shutdown of some systems onboard the orbiting spacecraft, dpa reported.
A spacewalk already scheduled for Thursday was revamped to deal with the replacement of the broken ammonia cooling loop, flight director Courtenay McMillan told reporters. At least two spacewalks will be needed to replace the system with a spare part stored outside the ISS and a second spacewalk could take place as soon as Sunday.
NASA was still planning the details of the first spacewalk and it could be delayed if more preparation is needed, McMillan said.
The system is one of two used to keep electronics on the ISS from overheating. On Saturday, alarms were triggered signalling that the ammonia-based refrigeration system on the ISS had failed due to a power surge.
NASA officials stressed that the six crew members were in no danger, and all critical and many non-critical systems on the ISS were operating as normal despite the malfunction.
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