Two NASA spacewalkers stepped outside the International Space Station on Saturday in order to fix a serious coolant leak which there were successfully able to do so, NASA said.
In addition to inspecting the site of the leak, NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn removed and replaced a 260-pound pump controller box, NASA explained. They replaced a box that controls the flow of ammonia coolant in that area, which engineers suspected had failed and sprung the leak.
"No leaks!" tweeted Chris Hadfield of Canada, the space station's commander, who choreographed the spacewalk. "We're bringing Tom & Chris back inside. ... This is an amazing place & time."
The entire spacewalk took 5 hours and 30 minutes -- an hour less than expected.
NASA says it may take weeks to confirm if the old pump controller box was indeed the cause of the leak, but the new one is performing perfectly so far.
NASA said the leak never put any of the astronauts lives in danger, but managers wanted to deal with the trouble now, while it's fresh and before Marshburn returns to Earth in just a few days.
"It's really not a big deal to us overall. It shows the redundancy of the station, it shows how strong a research facility it is," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human spaceflight. But he added: "I think the next failure, or the failure after that, becomes a problem."
This is not the first time that a minor leak of ammonia has occurred - there was another occurrence in 2007, and NASA has been studying the issue ever since. Mission Control has been in contact with the ISS regarding the issue.
