CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronauts making a rare, hastily planned spacewalk replaced a pump outside the International Space Station yesterday in hopes of plugging a serious ammonia leak.
Mission Control said it appeared as though the leak may have been plugged, although additional monitoring over the coming days, if not weeks, will be needed before declaring a victory.
“No evidence of any ammonia leakage whatsoever.We have an airtight system — at the moment,” Mission Control reported.
Christopher Cassidy and Thomas Marshburn installed the new pump after removing the old one suspected of spewing flakes of frozen ammonia coolant two days earlier — though they uncovered “no smoking guns” responsible for the leak.
NASA said the leak, while significant, never jeopardized crew safety. But managers wanted to deal with the trouble now, before Marshburn returns to Earth in just a few days.
The space agency had never before staged such a fast, impromptu spacewalk for a station crew. Even during the shuttle days, unplanned spacewalks were uncommon.