Spacewalking astronauts pull off urgent station repairs

Spacewalking astronauts pull off urgent station repairs

(AP) — Spacewalking astronauts completed urgent repairs at the International Space Station on Tuesday, replacing equipment that failed three days earlier and restoring a backup for a vital data-relay system.

Success finally came after her spacewalking partner, Jack Fischer, blasted the area with nitrogen gas to clear away flecks of metal.

Testing confirmed the new unit worked, restoring full redundancy to the system that operates the space station's solar panels, radiators and robotic equipment.

Even though a second unit worked just fine after Saturday's breakdown, NASA scrambled to put together a spacewalk so there would be a backup in case that second unit failed, too, crippling the system for station cooling and solar energy production.

Fischer used a cleaning tool — essentially a nitrogen gas blaster — and blew away debris from the three holes.