The International Space Station (ISS) had an emergency when one of its cooling systems shut down Wednesday. The U.S National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed that the space station crews are safe as they fix the issue.
This is not the first time that the ISS had an issue with its cooling station – there was one in May this year and November 2012 when leaks were reported. But according to NASA spokesperson Josh Byerly, this type of issue had never been experienced by the ISS but assured that the space station and its crew are safe. He stressed however that "this is something that they have to get fixed."
On Wednesday, one of the two ammonia loops that the ISS uses to keep the internal and external equipment cool suddenly malfunctioned, caused by unanticipated cool temperature outside the station.
The engineering specialists believe that the ISS ammonia coolant shut down because the control valve malfunctioned. The management is looking at a software fix or a hands-on job to permanently solve the issue, which most probably take at least two days or two weeks max.
The emergency situation broke out as Tom Costello first reported the "urgent situation" on NBC news.
Byerly shared details of the failure, when the first ammonia loop called "Loop A" malfunctioned, the ISS team successfully allowed the pumps to operate normally by rechanneling everything on "Loop B." Unfortunately, the second ammonia loop, because of the heightened activity needed to handle twice the load, could not efficiently operate. The crews resorted to closing down some of the non-critical systems of the space station.
The six-man crew prioritized the station's electrical and life-support systems as well as the labs and freezers required for scientific experiments. A few of the non-critical systems like NASA's Harmony node, Europe's Columbus lab and Japan's Kibo lab had to be temporarily shut down.
As of this time, the NASA could not give a definite time when this will be permanently fixed which will allow the station to operate as usual. According to Byerly, "You can't put a timeline on it."
