A rapid response to an ammonia leak on the ISS
In short: Watch how NASA flight engineers performed a high-stakes, five-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to repair the International Space Station's thermal control system following a sudden coolant leak.
The video details a quick-turnaround mission on the station's P6 truss. Just 48 hours after an ammonia coolant leak was detected, NASA Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn conducted a 5-hour, 30-minute spacewalk to address the issue.
The crew focused on replacing a suspect pump controller box, a component responsible for distributing coolant through the station's thermal control system. This system uses liquid ammonia to collect waste heat and reject it via radiators. Following the installation of the spare pump, the system was powered on and showed no further signs of leaking.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Coolant Pump Replaced on ISS on This Week @NASA
- Also: International Space Station Active Thermal Control Sub-System On-Orbit Pump Performance and Reliability Using Liquid Ammonia as a Coolant - NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
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