Jan 31 2007
From The Space Library
Expedition 14 Commander Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Sunita L. Williams conducted a spacewalk outside the ISS, lasting 7 hours and 55 minutes, which exceeded the planned time of 6 hours and 30 minutes. The two astronauts moved half of the ISS’s coolant lines to a permanent cooling station on the station’s Port 6 (P6) Truss. Several flakes, either of toxic ammonia or of paint, floated away from a cooling-line cap as the astronauts disconnected two of the fluid lines connected to an ammonia reservoir, preparing to stow them away. Time constraints prevented the astronauts from stowing both of the fluid lines. Moreover, the astronauts failed to accomplish tasks that would enable them to “get ahead,” such as photographing a solar array that the ISS partners planned to retract during the next Shuttle mission in March. Because of the suspected leak during stowage of the fluid line, Mission Control required Lopez-Alegria and Williams to remain in their spacesuits for an additional 25 minutes once inside the ISS’s airlock, as a precaution against contaminating the station with ammonia.
NASA, “International Space Station Status Report: SS07-06,” 4 February 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_SS0706_station_status.html (accessed 14 October 2009); Warren E. Leary, “Spacewalkers Start Switch of Station’s Cooling System,” New York Times, 1 February 2007; Mike Schneider, “Astronauts Take 1st of 3 Spacewalks,” Associated Press, 1 February 2007.
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