Page 6 - Cooling Pump News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Will not be able to find it. two nasa astronauts spent more than five hours on an emergency space walk today trying to fix a critical cooling pump on the international space station. without the system, they had to turn off some of the important electronics. nasa says they got more accomplished than expected today and the problem just might be fixed during the next space walk scheduled for monday. back here on earth, a holiday travel mess. just as tens of millions of people hit the road and head to the airport, a fierce winter storm is bearing down on the midwest and marching east. it's th...

The pump station's structural truss. they had to disconnect all the fluid lines. they got that pump out of its receptacle and out of the cooling system and parked it in a temporary parking spot. they'll go back monday and retrieve the spare cooling pump that will be removed, put on the robot arm and put into place and reconnected. if they get through all of that on monday, they won't have to go outside on christmas day. that's sort of a christmas gift if they have to do a third one. >> let's talk about the critical nature of this. if they do not repair this, what kind of hazards will this caus...

Take it out and put in the new one, which is a spare that's stored outside the international space station. so a lot of work today. just prepping to do the change-out of the bad box with the new pump, and, you know, pam and victor, this is considered one of the top dozen critical items that require immediate attention from nasa, and from the astronauts on the space station, because there are two cooling pumps. you have one go down. puts a lot of stress on that second cooling pump. so this is something they had to get replaced. they tried to do it remotely, to make these valves open and close. ...

They've been out there for a few hours already. two astronauts were scheduled to spend about 6 1/2 hours outside the station today, but that has been extended. they're working to fix a critical cooling system. nasa is also taking special precautions today after an italian astronaut almost drowned on a space walk when his helmet filled with water while back. john zarella is following the space walk. what kind of progress is being made, john? this is painstaking, isn't it? >> reporter: it's unbelievable progress, though. first of all, no issues with the flooding of the helmet like luca parmitano...

The next space walk, which is due in the next few days, is by no means going to be any easier. take a listen. >> they'll go back monday and retrieve the spare cooling pump that will be removed, put on the robot arm, transferred to the new site and then put into place and reconnected. if they get through all of that on monday, they won't have to go outside on christmas day. although that's sort of a secret christmas gift that they actually have to do a third one. >> well, they might not have to do a third one and it appears it's not going to be monday now. mission control at the johnson space c...