NASA astronauts completed the first of two planned spacewalks to fix a failed cooling pump on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said on its website.
The spacewalk, which lasted for eight hours and three minutes, became the longest ever conducted from the ISS and the sixth longest in human spaceflight history. It was conducted by Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson.
NASA said ISS is now "in a stable configuration, the crew is safe and engineers continue reviewing data from the failed pump."
One of two cooling systems serving the ISS broke down late on July 31, and the crew had shut down several pieces of equipment, including two of the station's four gyroscopes, to cut the heat generated on board.
The second spacewalk to complete the removal of the failed pump and installation and activation of the new pump module is slated for Wednesday
MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti)
