Spacewalkers venture outside space station again (Small ammonia leak)

ABC News and Reuters ^ | 4 February 2007 | By Irene Klotz

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Feb 4, 2007 — CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two astronauts left the International Space Station on Sunday to finish hooking up a new cooling system that will pave the way for installation of European and Japanese modules beginning this year.

Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Sunita Williams left the station's Quest airlock at 8:38 a.m. EST (1338 GMT) for the planned 6-1/2 hour spacewalk.

It was the second of three planned spacewalks over nine days, the most ambitious station assembly work ever attempted without a U.S. space shuttle crew present.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams, both U.S. astronauts, will spend most of their time disconnecting two old ammonia coolant lines and installing lines to a new centralized system. The work will complete a task started during on the first of the three spacewalks four days ago.

Once the new lines are installed, Lopez-Alegria and Williams will assist ground control teams with retracting and packing up a radiator panel that is no longer needed.

They also will finish hooking up cables to allow visiting space shuttles to tap into the station's electrical system and extend their stays in orbit.

NASA plans to use the new system during Endeavour's 14-day mission to the station in late June.

If time allows, the astronauts will photograph a solar array panel that needs to be folded up and moved elsewhere on the station. NASA added a day to its last shuttle mission to the station in December because of problems retracting an identical panel.

The second wing of solar panels is scheduled to be folded up during the next mission, scheduled for March, and engineers are working on new procedures to avoid similar problems.

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NASA

Second U.S. Expedition 14 Spacewalk Begins

February 4, 2007

Image above: Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, Expedition 14 flight engineer, uses a pistol grip tool as she participates in the first of three spacewalks in nine days on the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams began their spacewalk today at 8:38 a.m. EST. This is the second of an unprecedented series of spacewalks. Some of the tasks planned for this excursion are similar to those of the first spacewalk on Wednesday. They will reconfigure the second of two cooling loops for the Destiny module, secure the aft radiator of the P6 truss after retraction and prepare the obsolete Early Ammonia Servicer for removal this summer.

At the conclusion of the third spacewalk from the Quest airlock on Feb. 8 and a Russian spacewalk planned for Feb. 22, Lopez-Alegria will have completed his 10th spacewalk, an astronaut record. Williams will have a total of four, the most ever by a woman

Second U.S. Expedition 14 Spacewalk Begins

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ABC News and Associated Press

Astronauts Conduct 2nd of 3 Spacewalks

Astronauts Face Ammonia Leak During 2nd of 3 Spacewalks to Upgrade Station's Cooling System

February 4, 2007

By MIKE SCHNEIDER

The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Small amounts of toxic ammonia leaked from a fluid line Sunday as two astronauts conducted the second of what could be a precedent-setting three spacewalks in nine days, upgrading the international space station's cooling system.

The ammonia flakes did not appear to make contact with Michael Lopez-Alegria or Sunita Williams. Mission Control told the astronauts to continue their task of hooking up ammonia fluid lines from a temporary cooling system to a permanent one.

The astronauts looked over their spacesuits, gloves and helmets and found no ammonia residue.

"I think we're happy with what we see," Lopez-Alegria said.

Mission Control told the astronauts to expose their spacesuits to the sunlight in an effort to "bake off" any ammonia residue that may have gotten on them. The astronauts experience a sunrise every 1 1/2 hours.

A leak occurred during a similar spacewalk by astronaut Robert Curbeam in 2001. During Lopez-Alegria and Williams' first spacewalk together Wednesday, four or five flakes of ammonia fell from a cooling line cap but did not touch the astronauts.

Nevertheless, Mission Control ordered the astronauts to take precautions against contamination since ammonia could cause respiratory problems for the three-person crew if enough of it got in the space station.

"They look like pinpoints," Lopez-Alegria told Mission Control on Sunday. "They don't look like what we saw the other day, but they are coming out with some velocity."

Lopez-Alegria and Williams planned to complete almost identical tasks to ones they did during their spacewalk Wednesday, hooking up the permanent cooling system and covering up an obsolete radiator that removed heat from the space station.

The third spacewalk is set for Thursday, marking the first time three spacewalks will have been conducted in such a short time at the space station without a space shuttle docked to it. Lopez-Alegria planned to conduct a fourth spacewalk with Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin on Feb. 22.

If the schedule stays in place, both U.S. astronauts would hold spacewalking records by the end of the month. Williams will hold the record for the most by a woman, and Lopez-Alegria will be the U.S. champion, surpassed only by Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov for the all-time record.

Astronauts Conduct 2nd of 3 Spacewalks

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In this image from NASA TV, International Space Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, left, flexes his legs with flight engineer Sunita Williams on the space station as they prepare for a space walk Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007. Floating at center is flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin of Russia. (AP Photo/NASA TV)

[Spirochete]

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria

How long until we have the first openly gay shuttle commander?

[Thermalseeker]

How long until we have the first openly gay shuttle commander?

I'd like to know if anybody has done the nasty up there yet, but only hetero, not homo......ride Sally ride.....

[Carl LaFong]

Most importantly, I hope they're investigating the effects of weightlessness on small screws.

[RightWhale]

An ammonia leak? That stuff is toxic. Better notify EPA, OSHA, and Algore, and evacuate outer space.