Successfully concluded the first exit to repair the station ... - El Periódico de Catalunya

Sunday, December 22, 2013 – 00.34 h

Astronaut Rick Mastracchio

performs a spacewalk outside at International Space Station (ISS).

astronauts Rick Mastracchio U.S. and Mike Hopkins have successfully completed the first spacewalk to repair the damaged cooling system of International Space Station ( EEI ), NASA reported .

Astronauts have been almost six hours outside the ISS to remove the pump module having a broken valve flow, so have returned to the station with much of the work done.

Initially, this operation would not be performed until February 23, but the good performance of Mastracchio and allowed Hopkins Mission Control NASA in Houston give the green light for work and totally adelantasen desmontasen the pump module. Thus, they might conclude replacement pump out Monday and not have to make another trek on Wednesday, Christmas Day.

Aided

from inside

two astronauts have been helped from within by his Japanese counterpart Watkata Koichi, who has handled a robotic arm from inside the ISS.

breakdown, reported on 11 December by the U.S. space agency, has had serious consequences for the functioning of the ISS at the moment, but forced to suspend all non-essential operations of the research laboratory within the space outpost , orbiting 420 miles above Earth.

Mastracchio

addition, Hopkins Watkata and current ISS crew compose Russian Oleg Kotov , with the rank of major, Mikhail Tyurin and Sergey Ryazanskiy