Spacewalkers Begin Switching Over the Station's Cooling System

By Fraser Cain - January 31, 2007 at 7:55 PM UTC | Space Exploration

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.

NASA News Release

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today, founding the website in March 1999. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast.