Channel 4 News Menu
11 May 2013

Astronauts take spacewalk to fix space station leak

Two astronauts take an emergency spacewalk to try and fix an ammonia leak in the International Space Station.

Live streaming by Ustream

The Nasa livestream has now finished.

The power cooling system leak was discovered on Thursday when the crew noticed particles of ammonia drifting away from the station, and the spacewalk was hastily arranged to try and fix it.

The two astronauts were due to set off at 13.15 GMT (8.15 ET) and the venture lasted under six hours.

There is usually more planning involved for a spacewalk, but Nasa wanted to try and fix the leak as soon as possible to prevent ammonia escaping.

The space agency also wanted to take advantage of the skills of an experienced spacewalker who is due to return home on Monday along with two other astronauts.

The two astronauts charged with the emergency task – Americans Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn – planned to swap out a pump box on one of the eight solar panels that supply electricity to the station.

The leak forced Nasa to shut off the power from one of eight solar panels that supply electricity. But officials said the station had plenty of power, and that the six-man crew was not in danger.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield was the crew commander and managed the movements of the two astronauts while they were outside the space station.

He has gathered a huge following of over 750,000 people on Twitter after posting dramatic pictures of earth from space, and took to Twitter again to post pictures before and during the spacewalk.