Space
station cooling system shuts down, but no emergency, says NASA
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[December 12, 2013]
By Irene Klotz
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — NASA is
assessing a problem with one of two cooling systems aboard the
International Space Station, a potentially serious but not
life-threatening situation, officials said on Wednesday.
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The system automatically shut itself down after detecting abnormal
temperatures, said NASA spokesman Josh Byerly at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston.
The problem appears to be a faulty valve inside a pump located
outside the station, a $100 billion research complex that flies
about 250 miles above Earth.
Repairs may require a spacewalk, Byerly said.
"If it's a software problem, they could just do a software update or
do a patch. If it's a hardware issue, that's something else," Byerly
said. "We'll know more in the next day or so."
The six astronauts aboard the station are not in any danger and
would not need to evacuate, he added.
"Some of the news reports that I've seen out there have been like
'catastrophic shutdown.' That's not at all what this is," Byerly
said.
Equipment aboard the station affected by the shutdown has either
been powered off or switched over to the station's second cooling
loop, including three freezers that hold science samples for return
to Earth.
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The station has three spare pumps located outside the station if
engineers determine the valve cannot be repaired and managers
authorize a spacewalk, Byerly said.
U.S. spacewalks have been suspended since July after Italian
astronaut Luca Parmitano's spacesuit started leaking, causing his
helmet to fill with water.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; editing by David Brunnstrom)
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