ISS Repairs Delay

The first spacewalk to repair the ISS cooling system ran into another problem yesterday as astronauts found an ammonia leak. That is potentially serious, as the station obviously has only a limited supply of ammonia to circulate through the cooling system. Because of the leak, the astronauts failed to swap pumps.

NASA now says repairing the system will require a third spacewalk, and the second won't take place until Wednesday at the earliest. NASA still says the crew is in no immediate danger, but the cooling system is a vital system. Currently, ISS is working at less than full capacity; some lesser systems have been shut down, for example, to lessen the heat burden on the cooling system. At some point fairly soon, NASA needs to get the primary cooling loop back functioning.