Spacewalkers Begin Switching Over the Station’s Cooling System

Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Sunita Williams spent nearly 8 hours outside on the International Space Station on Wednesday, beginning the process of reconfiguring the station’s power and cooling systems.

The spacewalk was the first of three scheduled for the next nine days. Over the course of these spacewalks, the astronauts will switch over the station’s power and cooling system over to a permanent configuration.

The astronauts spent 25 minutes waiting at the end of their spacewalk to make sure they weren’t contaminated by any ammonia from the fluid lines they had been working with.

The next spacewalk is scheduled for February 4th.

Original Source: NASA News Release