ISS Repairs postpone Resupply

slade_x

http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-postpones-orbital-launch-sets-spacewalks-to-repair-faulty-pump-module/index.html

NASA managers are postponing the upcoming Orbital Sciences commercial cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station to proceed with a series of spacewalks to replace a faulty pump module on the space station.


NASA Television will air a news briefing at 3 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 18 to preview the spacewalks.

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft, atop its Antares rocket, now will launch no earlier than mid-January. The postponement of the Antares launch will allow...........

apollo8

i was going to post on this last week when the fault developed but the iss gets very little interest
NASA now plan a series of spacewalks beginning saturday to replace a pump that cools half the station
this pump first failed only three years ago at this rate the iss future is bleak in that spares are in short supply and no shuttles to repelnish heavy parts

i have great faith in the astronauts and nasa but they are only human This may not go well fingers crossed:)

Nasa orders urgent spacewalks for space station repairs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25425662

Rhys Essien

Watch the first of the three spacewalks live,to make the repairs tomorrow at midday.

See here.
http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html

apollo8

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Watch the first of the three spacewalks live,to make the repairs tomorrow at midday.

See here.
http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html

A labour of love i have watched them before even when critical it is like watching paint dry:P

Capt'n Midnight

The worrying thing is that they've already fixed ammonia leaks in May 2013 and November 2012

Since 2006, ISS flight controllers have been tracking a slow ammonia leak in the channel 2B cooling loop in the P6 PVTCS PVR, which, due to its very low leakage rate, was not considered a major concern, with the only action required being a periodic ammonia re-fill of the leaking loop, a task that was successfully accomplished during an EVA on the STS-134 Space Shuttle mission in May 2011.

http://www.space.com/49-iss-space-station-cooling-system-malfunction.html



This doesn't affect the Russian section as they use a different cooling system.

http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1126/plumbing-work-of-iss

The ISS has water loops in the life support system (including condensate collection), and cooling loops in the thermal control system.

Internal loops
Water-filled (US)
Filled with a mixture of water and ethylene glycol (Russia)

External loops
Anhydrous ammonia (US)
Polymethyl Siloxane (Russia)

space2ground1

apollo8 wrote: »

A labour of love i have watched them before even when critical it is like watching paint dry:P

It can get hairy very quickly! I was watching live when Parmitano started reporting water in his helmet. A few mins later the whole ISS crew is crawling all over his suit trying to get the helmet off. Granted the other 98% of EVA watching time is a bit like classical music.. good to have on in the background

apollo8

now that the iss is back to good health antares cyguss has launched to the station

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvJalfDlCSI

apollo8

Cygnus will dock to ISS today at eleven AM live NASA TV from ten

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#.UtJO9dJ_uyh

ISS cameras http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/iss_ustream.html#.UtJPbdJ_uyg